WOMEN  AS   MUNITION 
MAKERS 

A  STUDY  OF  CONDITIONS  IN 
BRIDGEPORT,     CONNECTICUT 

BY  AMY  HEWES 


MUNITION    WORKERS    IN 
ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 

A  SUMMARY  OF  REPORTS 
ISSUED  BY  THE  BRITISH 
MINISTRY  OF  MUNITIONS 

BY  HENRIETTE  R.  WALTER 

INVESTIGATOR    DIVISION    OF    INDUSTRIAL    STUDIES 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


NEW   YORK 

RUSSELL   SAGE   FOUNDATION 
MCMXVII 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS' 

PAGE 

LIST  OF  TABLES     .         .         .         .         .         .  v 

WOMEN  AS  MUNITION  MAKERS — Introduction  .         .1 

I.     Bridgeport  and  the  War  Boom       .         .  10 
II.    The  Women  at  Work     .         .         .         .18 

III.  Cartridge  Making  and  Its  Dangers  .         .  29 

IV.  Hours  of  Labor  and  Night  Work     .         .  39 
V.     Wages 55 

VI.     The  Women  at  Home     ....  63 

VII.     Programs  of  City  and  State     ...  82 

MUNITION  WORKERS  IN  ENGLAND  ....  97 

Hours  of  Labor 103 

Health   and   Hygiene 114 

General  Welfare  Provision       .         .         .         .126 

Employment  of  Women   .....  129 

Juvenile  Employment       .....  132 

Summary  of  Recommendations         .          .          .  135 

Subsequent  Conditions     .....  137 

MUNITION  WORKERS  IN  FRANCE     ....  145 

Organization  of  Munition  Industry  .         .         .  147 

Industrial  Relations          .....  148 

Hours  of  Work 149 

The  Women  Workers 152 

Technical  Instruction  of  Workers     .         .         .  154 

Cause  of  Increased  Production          .         .         .  154 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 156 

iii 


380524 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

1.  Last  occupation  before  entering  the  munition  indus- 

try, for  73  women  munition  workers  interviewed . .     22 

2.  Nativity  of  women    munition    workers    interviewed 

and  of   their   fathers 24 

3.  Ages  of  women  munition  workers  interviewed 26 

4.  Conjugal  condition  of  women  munition  workers  in- 

terviewed         27 

5.  Occupations  of  women  munition  workers  included  in 

the   investigation    32 

6.  Daily  hours  of  labor  for  women  workers  included  in 

the   investigation    41 

7.  Length  of  lunch  period  for  women  munition  work- 

ers included  in  the  investigation 43 

8.  Weekly  hours  of  labor  of  women  munition  workers 

included   in   the   investigation 44 

9.  Hour    of     beginning    work    for    women     munition 

workers   included   in   the   investigation 45 

10.  Weekly  earnings    of    women    munition  workers  in- 

cluded   in    the    investigation 58 

11.  Total  weekly  income  in    families    of    women    muni- 

tion workers  interviewed,  by  number  of  contribu- 
tors         64 

12.  Proportion  of  weekly  earnings  given  to  the  home  by 

women  munition    workers    interviewed    who    were 
living   with   their   families 65 

13.  Persons  gainfully  employed  among  members  of  100 

families  of  women  munition  workers  interviewed, 
by  age  and  sex 68 

14.  Monthly  rents  paid  by  families  of  women  munition 

workers    interviewed,    by   number    of  rooms  occu- 
pied         73 

15.  Persons  per  room  in  families    of    women    munition 

workers    interviewed    ,  75 


•     Worker  living  with  family 
Worker  living  alone 

1  Plant  of  Union  Metallic  Cartridge  Company 

2  Plant  of  Remington  Arms  Company 

MAP  OF  BRIDGEPORT,  SHOWING  LOCATION  OF  HOMES  OF  WOMEN 
INTERVIEWED 


WOMEN  AS  MUNITION 
MAKERS 


A  STUDY  OF  CONDITIONS   IN 
BRIDGEPORT,      CONNECTICUT 


BY  AMY  HEWES 


INTRODUCTION 

WHY  AND  HOW  THE  INVESTIGATION  WAS 
MADE 

DURING  the  early  months  of  1915  the  world 
of  industry  was  stirred  by  rumors  of  un- 
heard of  rewards  for  work  in  munition 
shops  in  the  United  States.  Women,  it  was  said, 
were  in  as  great  demand  as  men  and  other  occu- 
pations were  suffering  from  the  competition  of 
high  wages  paid  for  work  on  war  materials.  The 
first  commercial  depression  following  the  out- 
break of  the  war  in  Europe  had  passed  and  the 
business  of  supplying  materials  of  all  kinds  to  the 
warring  countries  had  begun. 

With  this  harvest  of  war  orders  had  come  in 
several  localities  a  rapid  increase  in  population, 
pressing  municipal  problems,  and  the  dangers  of 
overstrain  in  industry  itself  through  the  intense 
effort  to  secure  maximum  output.  What  effect 
would  this  sudden  expansion  of  a  war  trade  have 
upon  women  workers  ?  Could  they  stand  the  race 
for  speed?  Overtime,  night  work,  and  Sunday 
work  might  be  insisted  upon  as  in  England. 
Would  our  labor  laws  prevent  overstrain? 

Throughout  the  east  munition  companies  had 
constructed  huge  plants  and  begun  manufacturing 
on  an  enormous  scale  before  1915  was  half  over. 
At  Eddystone,  Pennsylvania,  two  large  factories 
were  built,  each  with  about  15  acres  of  floor 

1 


.-I. WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

space;*  one,  a  branch  of  a  company  whose  con- 
tracts from  the  Allies  were  said  to  amount  to  al- 
most $200,000,000,  manufactured  shrapnel;  the 
other,  a  branch  of  the  largest  munition  factory  in 
Bridgeport,  had  a  capacity  of  1,500,000  rifles  a 
year.  In  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania  another 
huge  company  had  been  operating  great  plants  to 
fill  orders  running  into  the  millions  of  dollars. 
Within  ten  months  during  1915  and  1916  this  com- 
pany declared  dividends  amounting  to  104  per  cent 
on  its  common  stock.  The  middle  west  had  also 
had  its  share  in  the  munition  business;  the  great 
steel  companies  had  been  turning  out  order  after 
order,  with  others  on  hand  and  deliveries  running 
more  than  a  year  ahead.  The  record  of  war  ma- 
terial sent  out  of  the  port  of  New  York  in  one 
week  in  August,  1916,  included  $20,000,000  worth 
of  explosives,  $10,000,000  worth  of  shells  and  shell 
materials,  and  nearly  $1,000,000  worth  of  fire- 
arms. 

To  this  large  production,  the  city  of  Bridgeport, 
Connecticut,  was  an  important  contributor,  and 
here  women  were  employed  in  large  numbers  in 
munition  making.  For  the  women  and  girls  in 
this  New  England  town,  as  well  as  for  those  in 
other  such  centers,  obvious  dangers  were  ahead. 
The  necessity  to  recruit  new  workers  had  already 
drawn  into  the  industry  Bridgeport  women  un- 


*On  April  10,  1917,  an  explosion  completely  destroyed  the 
loading  and  inspecting  buildings  of  the  Eddystone  Ammuni- 
tion Company  at  Eddystone,  Pa.,  resulting  in  the  death  of  122 
workers,  more  than  half  of  whom  were  women,  and  the  seri- 
ous injury  of  over  50  more. 

2 


INTRODUCTION 

accustomed  to  factory  work,  and  had  brought 
girls  from  other  places,  setting  them  adrift  with- 
out homes  in  a  community  quite  unprepared  to 
protect  their  health,  give  them  wholesome  recrea- 
tion, sufficient  transit  facilities  or  even  proper 
housing. 

In  the  autumn  of  1915  the  Department  of  Sur- 
veys and  Exhibits  of  the  Kussell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, in  co-operation  with  The  Survey  magazine, 
had  sent  Mr.  Zenas  L.  Potter  to  Bridgeport  to 
make  a  brief  study  of  the  social  effects  of  the  war 
boom.  His  report  was  published  in  The  Survey  in 
December.*  It  indicated  the  need  for  further  ob- 
servation, especially  for  a  study  of  the  women  who 
were  making  munitions.  In  the  summer  of  1916 
the  Foundation,  through  its  Division  of  Indus- 
trial Studies,  undertook,  therefore,  a  brief  investi- 
gation of  the  women  employed  in  the  largest  muni- 
tion plant  in  Bridgeport,  the  cartridge  shops  of 
the  Remington  Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge 
Company,f  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  ef- 
fect upon  them  of  the  changed  living  and  working 

*  Potter,  Zenas  L. :  War  Boom  Towns,  Bridgeport.  The 
Survey,  pp.  237-242,  December  4,  1915. 

t  This  company,  the  union  of  two  firms  that  have  long  been 
famous  in  the  manufacture  of  firearms  and  shells,  employed 
at  the  time  of  the  investigation  8,000  men  and  4,000  women  in 
the  cartridge  shops.  Information  is  lacking  as  to  the  number 
of  men  in  the  rifle  factory.  Towards  the  close  of  the  year 
1916,  the  company  began  the  experiment  of  employing  women 
in  the  plant  of  the  Remington  Arms,  where  rifles  are  manu- 
factured, but  this  was  subsequent  to  the  investigation,  so  that 
the  work  of  these  women  is  not  included  in  the  inquiry.  Of 
four  other  Bridgeport  munition  firms,  two  employed  no 
women,  and  two  a  relatively  small  number. 

3 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

conditions.*  Such  an  inquiry,  it  was  ex- 
pected, would  reveal  in  miniature  the  results  of 
this  sudden  war  trade  expansion  on  wom- 
en's work,  not  only  as  it  affected  women  in 
Bridgeport,  but  as  it  might  be  expected  to  affect 
them  in  whatever  part  of  the  country  they  are 
employed  in  making  shells,  arms,  or  other  war 
material. 

Information  on  the  processes  in  which  women 
were  employed,  on  their  pay  and  hours  of  work,  on 
the  danger  of  accidents,  and  the  other  conditions 
of  their  employment  was  obtained  chiefly  through 
interviews  with  a  group  of  munition  workers  in 
their  own  homes.  Supplementary  data  on  living 
conditions  and  health  were  also  obtained  from 
members  of  their  families  and  from  social  and 
civic  agencies  in  Bridgeport.! 

The  industrial  situation  was  discussed  with  a 
number  of  manufacturers  in  Bridgeport  who  made 
valuable  comments  concerning  the  production  side 
of  the  munition  industry  and  with  officials  of  the 


*  The  inquiry  was  conducted  by  Miss  Amy  Hewes,  professor 
of  Economics  in  Mt.  Holypke  College,  and  formerly  secretary 
of  the  Massachusetts  Minimum  Wage  Commission.  Miss 
Henriette  R.  Walter,  of  the  staff  of  the  Division  of  Industrial 
Studies  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  assisted  in  the  field 
survey  and  in  the  preparation  of  the  statistical  tables. 

t  Valuable  supplementary  material  concerning  the  social  and 
civic  activities  by  which  Bridgeport  is  endeavoring  to  deal 
with  its  multiplying  problems  was  given  by  Mr.  George  Gove, 
secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce;  Mr.  George  L. 
Warren,  secretary  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society;  Miss 
Cynthia  Moore,  secretary  of  the  East  Side  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association ;  Mr.  Spencer  R.  Gordon,  superintendent 
of  charities,  and  others,  to  all  of  whom  hearty  thanks  are 
due  for  their  cordial  co-operation. 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

machinists'  union,  who  presented  the  situation 
from  the  point  of  view  of  labor. 

Had  the  Foundation  been  given  permission  to 
make  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  plant  it  would 
have  reported  on  wages  as  revealed  on  the  pay- 
roll, hours  of  labor  and  the  effect  of  overtime  on 
output;  night  work  and  its  productivity  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  day  work;  health  and  safety 
and  the  methods  of  guarding  against  industrial 
accident  and  disease ;  and  the  regularity  of  attend- 
ance of  the  men  and  women  employed.  But  this 
permission  was  refused.  It  is  in  the  homes  of  the 
workers,  however,  that  the  social  effects  of  an  in- 
dustry can  best  be  studied,  and  in  this  inquiry,  as 
in  several  others  conducted  by  the  Foundation,  re- 
liance was  placed  upon  the  method  of  securing 
facts  from  the  workers  themselves  in  their  own 
homes. 

The  names  of  most  of  the  women  interviewed 
were  taken  at  random  from  the  1916  Bridgeport 
directory.  This  list  was  supplemented  by  names 
suggested  by  fellow-workers  and  others.  The  wide 
diversity  in  the  location  of  their  homes  and  in 
their  nationalities,  incomes,  and  characteristics,  to 
be  described  later,  vouches  for  the  representative 
character  of  the  group.  A  copy  of  the  record  card 
used  in  making  the  investigation  is  appended  to 
this  report.*  The  information  was  secured  in  per- 
son and  the  schedules  filled  out  by  the  investiga- 
tors. The  questions  covered  working  conditions, 
hours,  wages,  and  home  conditions.  One  hundred 

*See  page  93. 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

and  eighteen  girls  and  women  were  interviewed. 
Of  these,  18  were  away  from  home,  boarding  or 
living  in  furnished  rooms.  Exactly  100  others 
were  living  with  their  own  families,  and  in  these 
cases  information  was  added  about  the  family  in- 
come and  the  family  expenditures,  particularly  the 
item  of  rent.  The  girls  living  at  home  gave  also 
the  essential  facts  about  earnings,  processes,  and 
hours  of  work  for  47  other  women  in  their  families 
who  were  employed  in  the  munition  industry,  so 
that  some  information  was  obtained  for  165  work- 
ers in  all. 

Two  articles  giving  the  main  results  of  the  in- 
quiry have  already  been  published  in  advance  of 
this  report,*  in  the  hope  that  prompt  dissemina- 
tion of  the  facts  discovered  might  help  Connecti- 
cut citizens  to  strengthen  their  labor  laws.  The 
second  of  these  articles,  that  dealing  with  the  mu- 
nition industry,  was  submitted  in  manuscript,  in 
advance  of  publication,  to  officials  of  the  Reming- 
ton Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge  Company  for 
their  criticism.  This  procedure,  customary  in  in- 
dustrial investigations  made  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  was  the  more  necessary  in  this  case, 
because  of  the  previous  refusal  of  the  company 
to  give  the  Foundation  the  desired  information. 
In  the  conferences  which  followed  the  reading 
of  the  manuscript,  some  statements  were  chal- 
lenged, others  verified,  and  additional  material 


*  Hewes,  Amy :  Bridgeport  on  the  Rebound.     The  Survey, 
pp.  49-51,  October  14,  1916. 

Hewes,  Amy:  Women  as  Munition  Makers.     The  Survey, 
pp.  379-385,  January  6,  1917. 

6 


INTRODUCTION 

was  obtained,  especially  regarding  changes  made 
after  the  field  work  of  the  investigation  was  com- 
pleted. In  response  to  the  suggestion  of  the  com- 
pany that  no  study  could  be  accurate  which  was 
not  based  on  data  obtained  in  the  plant  itself,  the 
Foundation  offered  to  make  such  a  supplementary 
inquiry  before  publishing  the  report.  This  offer 
was  refused. 

Since  the  declaration  of  war  by  the  United 
States  against  the  Imperial  Government  of  Ger- 
many, in  April,  1917,  the  findings  of  the  study  are 
of  even  greater  importance  than  when  it  was  made 
during  the  summer  of  1916.  The  employment  of 
women  in  the  manufacture  of  war  materials  is 
bound  to  increase.  Early  in  1917,  the  War 
Department,  as  a  preparation  for  what  had  long 
seemed  inevitable,  had  already  called  upon  the 
Department  of  Labor  for  1,000  workers,  both  men 
and  women,  for  the  making  of  munitions  in  fed- 
eral plants.*  Now  that  we  are  in  a  state  of  actual 
war  and  will  be  obliged  to  make  shells  and  guns 
not  only  for  the  countries  whose  ally  we  have  be- 
come, but  also  for  ourselves,  we  must  needs  take 
intelligent  counsel  of  whatever  experience  we  can 
lay  hands  on. 

England,  in  her  effort  to  manufacture  huge 
quantities  of  munitions  in  a  short  time,  in  order 
to  supply  her  army  and  navy  at  the  front,  went 


*This  call  was  made  in  February,  1917,  for  workers  in  the 
Dover  (N.  J.)  and  Philadelphia  arsenals,  to  be  filled  through 
the  employment  exchanges  of  the  Labor  Department.  Some 
protest  was  aroused  because  lower  wage  rates  were  offered 
to  women  than  to  men  for  similar  processes  of  work. 

7 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

through  a  bitter  industrial  experience.  She  wore 
out  her  workers,  created  industrial  confusion,  lost 
the  labor  gains  of  years,  and  raised  the  unjust  cry 
that  British  workmen  were  "slackers." 

Finally,  a  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Com- 
mittee, headed  by  Sir  George  Newman,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  to  investi- 
gate ills  and  abuses  in  munition  plants,  and  to 
make  recommendations  to  insure  increased  pro- 
duction. The  second  part  of  this  study  gives  a 
detailed  summary  of  the  findings  of  this  commit- 
tee. They  dealt  particularly  with  the  conditions 
affecting  output,  including  overtime,  seven-day 
labor,  night  work,  danger  of  accident  and  disease 
from  fatigue,  lack  of  proper  food  and  housing  con- 
ditions, welfare  supervision,  and  the  employment 
of  children.  An  important  memorandum  was  is- 
sued on  women's  work,  with  definite  recommenda- 
tions for  safeguarding  the  health  of  English 
women. 

Evidence  shows  that  the  working  conditions  of 
the  women  interviewed  in  Bridgeport  during  the 
summer  of  1916  were  similar  in  many  respects  to 
those  under  which  English  women  worked  for  the 
first  year  or  more  of  the  war  with  such  bad  effects 
upon  themselves  and  upon  efficiency  of  production. 
Night  work  and  overtime  in  Bridgeport  were  al- 
ready found  while  yet  the  pressure  of  a  war  of 
our  own  was  remote  and  production  unstimulated 
by  any  call  of  patriotism.  Even  the  crowded  living 
conditions  had  begun  to  approach  those  in  English 
centers. 

8 


INTRODUCTION 

But  Bridgeport  is  only  one  illustration  of  sud- 
den expansion  due  to  the  demand  for  speedy  pro- 
duction of  munitions  of  war.  Its  industrial  and 
civic  questions  are  of  local  importance  in  many 
other  towns.  The  interest  of  the  report  here  pre- 
sented thus  transcends  that  attaching  to  the  record 
of  any  one  plant  or  any  one  place.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  working  conditions  in  munition  fac- 
tories as  well  as  the  living  conditions  in  munition 
centers  have  now  become  of  vital  importance  to 
the  whole  nation.  It  is  in  the  hope  that  this  coun- 
try may  avoid  a  breakdown  in  the  health  of  its 
women  workers  and  a  sacrifice  of  hard-gained  la- 
bor laws  to  protect  them,  as  well  as  the  results 
to  health  and  morals  of  congested  living,  that  this 
study  is  offered. 


CHAPTER  I 

BRIDGEPORT  AND  THE  WAR  BOOM 

THE  European  War,  with  its  unprecedented 
demand  for  munitions  has  metamorphosed 
Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  from  a  conserva- 
tive municipality  into  a  turbulent,  congested  com- 
munity. This  city  on  Long  Island  Sound  has  a 
long  and  varied  manufacturing  history ;  for  years 
it  has  held  an  important  place  as  the  home  of 
diversified  industry  in  a  part  of  the  country  in 
which  factory  towns  have  tended  to  become  spe- 
cialized. Fall  River,  Lawrence,  and  Lowell  are 
known  as  textile  cities,  Holyoke  and  Dalton  as 
paper  towns,  Lynn  and  Brockton  as  shoe  manu- 
facturing centers,  but  Bridgeport's  manufactures 
range  from  submarines  to  graphophones,  and  in- 
clude automobiles,  electrical  goods,  corsets,  and 
sewing  machines,  as  well  as  a  variety  of  foundry 
and  machine-shop  products.  It  is  only  recently 
that  the  expansion  of  the  military  arms  and  am- 
munition business  has  made  Bridgeport  known 
throughout  the  country  as  a  city  pre-eminent  in 
the  manufacture  of  munitions. 

For  the  first  few  months  of  the  war  the  city  had 
apparently  no  inkling  of  the  great  change  which 
was  to  come  about.  In  common  with  other  Ameri- 
can cities  it  suffered  during  the  winter  of  1914-15 
from  the  most  serious  shock  to  industry  and  trade 
that  the  country  has  had  since  the  hard  times  fol- 
lowing the  panic  of  1907.  The  daily  papers  tell 

10 


BRIDGEPORT   AND   THE   WAR   BOOM 

the  story  of  unemployment  and  distress,  of  the 
efforts  of  the  hard-pressed  Department  of  Chari- 
ties and  the  philanthropic  associations  to  give  re- 
lief, of  the  appointment  of  a  special  committee  to 
solve  the  problem  of  unemployment,  and  of  the 
difficulty  of  obtaining  appropriations  for  any 
large-scale  constructive  measures.  Except  for  the 
depression  which  such  a  period  brings  to  any  city, 
Bridgeport  was  progressing  in  an  orderly  and  con- 
ventional manner.  It  had  a  population  of  some- 
thing over  100,000,  a  transportation  system  which 
met  its  needs,  a  conservative  city  government,  and 
was  extending  its  suburbs  and  caring  for  its  large 
foreign  population  by  building  new  schoolhouses 
and  taking  steps  towards  revising  its  tenement 
house  laws. 

As  early  as  March,  1915,  however,  the  numbers 
of  its  unemployed  had  materially  decreased  and 
a  few  days  later  came  a  foreshadowing  of  the 
dramatic  change  that  was  to  take  place  in  the  for- 
tunes of  the  city.  Large  new  factory  buildings 
costing,  it  was  said,  $12,000,000,  were  under  con- 
struction on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  and  rumor 
had  it  that  these  were  designed  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  munitions.  Since  1867  Bridgeport  had 
been  the  established  home  of  the  Union  Metallic 
Cartridge  Company,  which  had  developed  a  sport- 
ing trade  in  addition  to  supplying  cartridges  to 
European  governments  and  to  the  United  States. 
In  1888  the  owner  of  this  company,  Marcellus 
Hartley,  acquired  the  Remington  Arms  Company, 
of  Ilion,  New  York,  and  the  two  plants  thus  be- 
ll 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

came  affiliated.  Late  in  the  spring  of  1915  it  be- 
came generally  known  that  the  new  factories  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  city  were  being  built  by  the 
Remington  Arms  Company  whose  plant  in  Ilion 
was  also  at  work  on  war  orders,  and  that  the  new 
business  in  Bridgeport  would  afford  opportunities 
for  work  to  thousands  of  people  in  the  making  of 
guns.  This  announcement  brought  large  numbers 
of  men  in  search  of  work.  There  were  jobs  for  all 
who  came  and  before  many  months  had  passed  the 
demand  for  labor  outran  the  supply.  The  prob- 
lem of  unemployment  was  entirely  forgotten. 
Each  unit  of  the  great  factory  was  put  into  opera- 
tion as  soon  as  it  was  completed  and  machinery 
could  be  installed.  The  Union  Metallic  Cartridge 
Company  also  enlarged  its  plant,  increasing  its 
floor  space  by  700,000  square  feet,  and  took  on 
many  additional  employes.  Other  munition  com- 
panies were  formed,  and  concerns  engaged  in  al- 
lied lines  of  business  turned  over  large  parts  of 
their  plants  to  the  manufacture  of  war  supplies. 

In  January,  1916,  it  was  announced  that  the 
arms  company  and  the  cartridge  company,  both 
controlled  by  Mr.  Marcellus  Hartley  Dodge,  had 
been  merged  into  the  Remington  Arms-Union 
Metallic  Cartridge  Company.  The  company  was 
incorporated  in  Connecticut,  with  a  capital  stock 
of  $60,000,000,  all  except  a  few  shares  of  which 
were  held  by  its  president  and  chief  owner. 

During  the  summer  of  1915,  when  the  business 
boom  had  been  growing  daily  and  rumors  of  fabu- 
lous war  profits  had  begun  to  spread,  dissatisfac- 

12 


BRIDGEPORT   AND   THE   WAR   BOOM 

tion  fermented  in  the  labor  world  in  Bridgeport 
and  the  city  entered  upon  a  three  months'  era  of 
strikes.  The  expansion  had  found  a  nine  or  ten- 
hour  day  in  nearly  all  factories.  Labor  was  for 
the  most  part  unorganized,  but  a  shortage  in  the 
supply  of  workers,  despite  the  rush  of  men  to  the 
city,  and  a  rapid  increase  in  rents,  and  the  abnor- 
mal living  conditions  due  to  this  rush  made  an  un- 
settled situation  in  which  labor  difficulties  rapidly 
developed.  The  real  trouble  began  in  a  jurisdic- 
tional  dispute  in  the  construction  of  the  arms  fac- 
tory, when  the  iron  workers,  who  claimed  that  the 
millwrights  should  be  affiliated  with  their  own 
union,  struck  because  the  millwrights  were  classed 
and  paid  as  carpenters.  The  millwrights  joined 
the  iron  workers.  Later  the  machinists  in  both 
the  Remington  Arms  and  the  Union  Metallic  Car- 
tridge Company  factories  struck  for  an  eight-hour 
day,  increased  pay,  time  and  one-half  pay  for  over- 
time, and  double  pay  for  Sundays  and  holidays. 
Within  two  weeks  the  company  granted  increased 
pay  and  a  forty-eight-hour  week  with  a  three-shift 
schedule,  and  the  strike  ended.  With  the  eight- 
hour  day  and  higher  wages  granted  in  one  quarter, 
it  was  inevitable  that  dissatisfaction  should  spread 
to  other  factories.  In  spite  of  strong  opposition 
by  the  Manufacturers'  Association  of  Bridgeport, 
which  continued  to  stand  for  a  fifty-four-hour 
week,  strike  after  strike,  with  the  eight-hour  day 
and  increased  pay  as  the  principal  issues,  was 
brought  to  a  successful  or  partially  successful  con- 
clusion in  favor  of  the  workers. 

13 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

A  company  manufacturing  automobiles  made  an 
effort  to  avert  trouble  by  introducing  a  profit-shar- 
ing plan;  this  the  men  rejected,  and  a  strike  was 
declared.  The  company  then  offered  a  choice  be- 
tween a  bonus  system  and  the  eight-hour  day.  The 
employes  voted  for  the  latter  and  returned  to  work 
with  the  new  system  of  hours  but  with  the  pay  on 
a  ten-hour  basis.  Strikes  among  the  hundreds  of 
women  in  the  corset  factories  produced  an  eight- 
hour  day  and  substantial  increase  in  wages.  From 
laundry  workers  to  window  cleaners,  through  the 
list  of  more  than  50  strikes  carried  on  in  Bridge- 
port during  the  summer  of  1915,  the  story  is  the 
same.  At  the  end  of  the  summer  Bridgeport  was 
practically  an  eight-hour  city,  with  the  prevailing 
rates  of  wages  fully  equivalent  to  those  on  the  old 
basis.  As  an  offset  to  these  gains,  however,  night 
work,  for  both  men  and  women,  was  on  the  in- 
crease, and  the  unions,  although  stronger  than  at 
the  beginning  of  the  struggle,  were  not  in  a  posi- 
tion to  enforce  a  closed  shop  policy. 

With  the  cessation  of  labor  troubles  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1915,  the  city  had  settled  into  an  accept- 
ance of  the  new  industrial  order  and  the  rapid 
changes  which  were  following  unavoidably  upon 
it.  Construction  of  the  arms  and  cartridge  facto- 
ries proceeded  rapidly,  and  the  working  force,  in- 
creasing as  one  department  after  another  was 
opened,  was  rated  within  a  few  months  at  a  figure 
between  20,000  and  30,000.  Other  factories,  of 
various  types,  continued  to  spring  up  in  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city,  bringing  new  suburban  devel- 

14 


BRIDGEPORT   AND   THE   WAR   BOOM 

opments.  Population  increased  at  an  unprece- 
dented rate.  The  lowest  estimate  made  at  the  time 
of  the  publication  of  the  1916  city  directory  placed 
the  total  population  at  140,000,  an  increase  of  37 
per  cent  since  1910.  The  contagion  of  prosperity 
was  everywhere  evident.  The  shopping  district 
of  the  city  boasted  the  "seventh  busiest  corner  in 
the  world"  (Main  Street  and  Fairfield  Avenue), 
and  in  the  rush  of  business  the  narrow,  crooked 
streets  became  wholly  inadequate  to  accommodate 
the  crowds.  The  trolley  service  failed  to  satisfy 
the  demand  for  transportation  and  innumerable 
honking  jitneys  filled  the  streets.  The  foreign 
money  order  business  in  the  overcrowded  local 
post  office  showed  an  increase  of  about  88  per 
cent  in  the  year  ending  July  31,  1916,  over  the 
previous  twelve  months.  The  business  of  the  town 
clerk's  office  during  the  month  of  August,  1916, 
was  twice  that  of  August,  1915,  an  increase  largely 
due  to  the  impetus  to  realty  transfers.  Property 
changed  hands  rapidly,  mortgages  were  placed  on 
businesses  and  homes  in  order  to  raise  money  for 
new  ventures,  and  banks,  firms,  and  individuals 
showed  a  willingness  to  lend  money  on  Bridgeport 
security.  The  big  capital  stock  of  the  Reming- 
ton Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge  Company  and 
its  incorporation  in  Connecticut,  taken  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  substantial  character  of  its  new  build- 
ings and  the  rumors  of  continued  war  orders,  led 
business  men  as  well  as  workers  to  believe  that 
the  business  represented  in  this  huge  concern 
would  be  relatively  permanent,  and  that  its  im- 

15 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

mense  trade  would  serve  to  stimulate  the  activity 
of  the  other  large  manufacturing  interests  of  the 
town. 

Among  the  municipal  problems  which  the  rush 
of  people  to  Bridgeport  in  1915  had  brought  the 
city  was  that  of  proper  housing.  This  problem 
had  grown  to  serious  proportions.  It  had  become 
for  many  workers  not  a  question  of  finding  a  de- 
cent place  in  which  to  live,  but  of  finding  any 
place  whatever  in  which  to  live.  Real  estate  agents 
ceased  to  have  houses  to  offer.  Rents  jumped  al- 
most instantaneously.  As  a  result  families  who 
were  unable  to  pay  the  increased  rates  were  evict- 
ed, and  were  unable  to  find  vacant  houses  for  the 
rents  which  they  could  pay.  Some  of  these  were 
actually  sent  to  the  city  almshouse  until  they  could 
find  houses;  others  became  for  the  first  time  de- 
pendent upon  charity ;  others  still  were  able,  with 
accompanying  hardships,  to  readjust  their  family 
budgets  and  to  give  a  much  higher  proportion  for 
rent  than  formerly. 

The  Remington  Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge 
Company,  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1915,  had  be- 
gun buying  large  tracts  of  land  and  building  a  sys- 
tem of  "company  houses,"  but  the  completion  of  a 
number  of  these  was  delayed  and  even  had  all  been 
ready  for  occupancy  in  1916  they  would  have  pro- 
vided only  a  fraction  of  the  number  of  houses 
required.  Hundreds  of  desirable  men,  many  of 
them  with  families,  came  to  the  city  only  to  go 
away  again,  because  they  could  find  no  place  to 
live. 

16 


BRIDGEPORT   AND    THE   WAR   BOOM 

Throughout  all  these  changes,  it  seemed  to  out- 
siders that  while  business  men  had  seized  upon 
the  high  commercial  importance  these  had 
wrought,  the  municipality  itself  was  hardly  con- 
scious of  its  own  new  responsibilities.  The  visitor 
to  Bridgeport  saw  the  thronged  streets,  the  halting 
transportation  service,  the  lack  of  recreational  fa- 
cilities, the  flimsy  three-decker  tenements  for 
which  rents  double  those  of  a  year  before  were 
asked,  and  marvelled  at  the  apparent  failure  of 
the  city  government  to  take  cognizance  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  no  longer  a  middle-aged,  conservative 
New  England  manufacturing  city,  but  a  "boom 
town,"  full  of  great  possibilities  for  good  or  harm, 
for  ugliness  or  beauty,  for  loyalty  or  bitterness, 
in  its  new  industrial  army. 

But  the  year  1916  saw  the  inception  of  a  new 
spirit  in  Bridgeport.  Even  while  the  city  seemed 
to  be  asleep,  new  ideas  were  fermenting.  Bridge- 
port had  ceased  to  be  a  typical  American  indus- 
trial city  and  had  become  a  unique  American  civic 
community.  How  it  treated  its  newly  imposed 
housing,  health  and  recreational  problems,  as  well 
as  how  its  women  workers  fared  while  making 
shells  for  the  Remington  Arms-Union  Metallic 
Cartridge  Company  is  told  in  the  following  pages. 


17 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  WOMEN  AT  WORK 

THE  hundreds  of  young  men  who  crowd 
Bridgeport's  brilliantly  lighted  streets  on 
Saturday  and  Sunday  nights  are  part  of  a 
mobile  industrial  force  which  can  travel  from  city 
to  city  in  response  to  the  lure  of  good  work  and 
good  pay.  The  force  of  working  women,  instan- 
taneously as  it  may  and  does  respond  to  a  de- 
mand for  labor  in  its  own  neighborhood,  is  more 
inert,  less  capable  of  severing  family  ties  and  set- 
ting aside  home  responsibilities  to  follow  the  call 
of  opportunity  in  other  cities.  The  men  in  the 
munition  factories  are  said  to  be  gathered  from  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  while  the  majority  of 
the  women  in  the  shops  are  from  the  city  of 
Bridgeport  itself.  All  but  nine  out  of  the  118 
women*  interviewed  in  the  summer  of  1916  had 
lived  in  Bridgeport  'more  than  two  years,  and 
all  but  17  had  lived  in  the  city  more  than  five 
years. 

As  the  demand  for  women's  work  in  the  muni- 
tion plants  increased  the  most  easily  utilizable 
source  of  additional  labor  proved  to  be  the  work- 
ing force  in  the  other  industries  in  Bridgeport. 


*  The  number  of  women  interviewed  comprised  100  women 
living  at  home  and  18  away  from  home.  From  the  100  women 
living  at  home,  some  information  was  obtained  concerning  47 
others  employed  in  the  industry;  the  total  was  thus  165  (see 
page  6).  The  discussion  in  this  chapter  has  reference  only 
to  the  118  directly  interviewed. 

18 


THE   WOMEN   AT   WORK 

The  corset  factories,  metal  works,  and  textile  mills 
already  employed  large  numbers  of  girls  and 
women,  many  of  whom  were  easily  attracted  by 
cartridge-making.  The  result  to  the  affected  in- 
dustries was  a  dearth  of  workers  evidenced  by 
widespread  advertising  of  an  unusually  urgent 
character ;  prospective  employes  were  assured  that 
the  positions  offered  had  the  advantages  of  high 
wages,  short  hours,  and  permanency.  The  grad- 
ual drain,  felt  first  in  the  neighboring  factories, 
extended  through  one  occupation  after  another, 
until  it  was  believed  to  be  responsible  even  for  the 
shortage  of  saleswomen  and  domestic  servants,  not 
only  in  Connecticut  towns  but  in  towns  in  nearby 
states.* 

At  the  same  time  the  munition  industry  was 
stabilized  by  an  important  constant  element  in  its 
labor  force,  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  57  out 
of  the  118  women  interviewed  had  worked  for 
the  company  for  at  least  five  years.  One  woman 
had  worked  for  the  same  concern  for  thirty-two 
years,  and  her  mother  before  her  had  done  the 
same  work  as  a  girl. 

The  venturesome  women  who  came  from  out- 
side the  city  proved  to  be  real  fortune-seekers  on 
the  industrial  frontier.  A  nineteen-year-old  Jew- 


*  The  demand  for  women  munition  workers  was  held  ac- 
countable for  a  shortage  of  domestic  servants  in  New  York 
City.  In  August,  1916,  the  superintendent  of  the  public  em- 
ployment office  in  New  York  stated  that  a  representative  of  a 
munition  factory  in  Bridgeport  called  on  him  frequently  to 
see  if  there  were  any  women  willing  to  work  in  munition 
plants,  and  that  similar  requests  were  received  from  munition 
factories  in  New  Jersey. 

19 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

ish  girl  who  was  working  as  inspector  in  the  car- 
tridge shop  told  the  story  of  leaving  her  home  in 
Russia,  of  the  crossing  in  the  steerage,  and  of  her 
school  days  on  New  York's  lower  East  Side  while 
her  father  supported  the  family  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  a  pushcart  business.  Coming  to  Bridge- 
port for  a  visit  to  an  aunt,  this  girl  saw  a  new  op- 
portunity for  herself  and  her  family.  She  quickly 
gave  up  her  poorly  paid  clerical  position  in  New 
York  and  went  into  the  munition  factory.  In  a 
short  time  she  had  persuaded  her  parents  and  her 
two  brothers  to  follow  and  settle  in  the  city,  and 
had  helped  her  ambitious  fifteen-year-old  brother 
to  start  a  four-year  apprenticeship  with  the  arms 
company,  during  which  he  could  earn  enough  to 
support  himself  until  he  could  draw  the  wages 
of  a  skilled  workman. 

Out  in  Saskatchewan  a  Danish  veterinarian  was 
settled  with  his  wife  and  daughters.  It  was  a 
lonely  place  for  young  people,  and  the  oldest 
daughter  persuaded  her  father  to  let  her  come  to 
Bridgeport  with  a  school  chum  who  had  heard 
of  the  chances  in  the  munition  factories.  Al- 
though she  was  unaccustomed  to  factory  work 
she  made  $12  a  week  from  the  start.  She  found 
a  comfortable  home  with  some  of  her  own  coun- 
try people,  and  was  carefully  hoarding  her  earn- 
ings for  her  trousseau,  for  she  had  become  en- 
gaged to  a  young  Englishman  in  Bridgeport  just 
before  he  left  for  the  trenches.  As  soon  as  the 
North  Sea  should  be  safe  she  planned  to  go  back  to 
Denmark,  whither  her  family  had  returned  soon 

20 


THE   WOMEN   AT   WORK 

after  she  left  them,  and  there  she  would  make 
ready  for  her  wedding. 

A  young  woman  who  a  few  months  before  had 
been  a  poorly  paid  operative  in  a  shirt  factory  in 
Rhode  Island  is  an  example  of  the  intelligence  and 
enterprise  often  found  to  be  characteristic  of  the 
women  munition  workers.  She  heard  of  the  de- 
mand for  girls  in  Bridgeport  and,  spurred  by  the 
inadequacy  of  her  own  earnings  and  the  irregu- 
larity of  her  father's,  came  to  the  city  on  a  pros- 
pecting visit.  With  no  trouble  she  immediately 
found  work  in  the  cartridge  shop.  At  almost  the 
same  time  she  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  a  room 
with  a  woman  who  was  just  about  to  give  up  her 
flat  and  move  to  another  city.  She  seized  the  op- 
portunity to  rent  the  flat  so  as,  to  have  a  place 
where  her  family  might  settle.  She  then  sent  for 
her  father  and  sister  and  for  a  girl  friend.  The 
reunited  family  took  possession  of  the  rooms  on 
the  same  day  that  the  former  landlady  moved  out. 
The  father,  who  had  been  a  painter  by  trade,  also 
found  work  in  the  shops,  and  the  other  two  girls 
went  to  work  in  the  cartridge  factory  in  which 
the  first  girl  was  working.  All  four  shared 
alike  in  the  household  expenses,  and  the  girl's  ven- 
ture in  transplanting  the  family  promised  suc- 
cess. 

Not  all  workers  new  to  Bridgeport  and  the  in- 
dustry, however,  had  been  pioneers  and  path- 
finders for  their  relatives  and  friends.  Several 
were  interviewed  who  had  come  alone  and  stayed 
alone.  Others  had  come  with  their  entire  families. 

21 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

For  example,  one  American  family  from  near  Bos- 
ton, composed  of  father,  mother  and  12  chil- 
dren, had  been  transplanted  en  masse,  and  while 
the  father  was  not  well  enough  to  work,  the  five 
sons  and  daughters  who  were  of  working  age  were 
employed  in  either  the  arms  or  the  cartridge  shop. 
The  majority  of  the  girls  who  had  had  working 
experience  before  going  into  munition  work  came 
from  other  manufacturing  occupations  in  Bridge- 
port or  elsewhere.  Table  1  shows  the  last  previ- 
ous occupations  of  the  girls  investigated. 

TABLE  1.— LAST  OCCUPATION  BEFORE  ENTERING  THE 

MUNITION     INDUSTRY,     FOR     73     WOMEN     MUNITION 

WORKERS  INTERVIEWED 


Previous  occupation 

Women 

Factory  work 
Corset  manufacture 
Manufacture  of  machines,  tools,  and  fixtures 
Textile  manufacture 
Metal  work 
Clothing  manufacture 
All  other  work 
Sales-work 
Domestic  and  personal  service 
Custom  dressmaking 
Office  work 
All  other  occupations 

47 
15 
8 
6 
6 
6 
6 
13 
6 
2 
2 
3« 

Total 

73" 

"Includes  farm  work  1,  home  work  on  neckties  1,  and  "odd  jobs"  1. 
"Of  the   118  women  interviewed,  45  had  never  been  gainfully 
employed  before  entering  the  munition  industry. 

Fifteen  of  these  munition  workers  had  been  cor- 
set makers,  an  important  occupation  for  Bridge- 
port girls,  since  Bridgeport  is  one  of  the  largest 
corset-making  centers  in  the  country,  and  has 
places  for  hundreds  of  girls  in  that  employment. 
Other  common  factory  work  included  the  manu- 
facture of  textiles,  metals,  and  tools.  Outside  of 

22 


THE   WOMEN    AT    WORK 

factory  occupations,  sales-work  was  the  previous 
occupation  most  frequently  reported.  The  table 
brings  out  the  fact  that  it  was  possible  for  the 
munition  industry  to  draw  its  workers  from  a  wide 
range  of  occupations,  for  it  makes  small  demands 
in  the  way  of  training  and  experience.  Indeed, 
considerably  more  than  one-half  of  the  118  women 
had  had  no  previous  factory  work  of  any  kind, 
and  45  had  had  no  previous  gainful  occupation 
whatsoever. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  foregoing  table  does 
not  show  the  drain  upon  other  industries  caused 
by  the  war  boom,  since  94  of  these  women  had 
held  their  positions  in  the  cartridge  factory  some 
time  before  the  boom  began ;  that  is,  for  two  years 
or  more  before  this  investigation  was  made. 

These  facts  raise  the  question  as  to  whether  the 
group  interviewed  in  the  investigation  was  not 
composed  of  a  disproportionately  large  number  of 
girls  who  had  worked  in  the  munition  industry 
before  the  war  began,  with  an  insufficient  repre- 
sentation of  those  lured  into  it  from  other  indus- 
tries or  other  cities  when  the  sudden  expansion 
required  new  recruits.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  ac- 
cording to  statements  by  officials  of  the  company, 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  women  employed 
in  their  plant  was  not  so  large  as  had  been  antici- 
pated. In  November,  1915,  it  was  expected  that 
4,000  additional  girls  and  women  would  be  needed 
between  the  following  January  and  June,  and  yet 
by  the  summer  of  1916  the  total  force  of  women 
in  the  factory  was  not  more  than  4,000.  That  part 

23 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 


of  the  new  force  which  had  come  from  other  cities 
proved  to  be  to  a  great  extent  shifting  and  un- 
stable, so  that  while  a  large  number  of  women 
had  come  to  Bridgeport  with  the  boom,  the  factory 
force  was  not  proportionately  increased.  It  seems 
probable  that  the  group  interviewed  was  represen- 
tative, composed  as  it  was  of  workers  from  other 
occupations  and  a  fair  proportion  of  women  never 
employed  in  any  other  industry.  The  latter  repre- 
sented in  part  girls  who  had  engaged  in  cartridge 
making  before  the  war  boom,  and  in  part  the  po- 
tential labor  supply  of  women  always  available  in 
a  fair-sized  city  when  slight  extra  inducements, 
coupled  with  increased  cost  of  living,  draw  them 
into  the  labor  market. 

The  birthplaces  of  the  118  women  and  the  na- 
tionalities of  their  fathers  are  shown  in  Table  2. 

TABLE  2.— NATIVITY  OF  WOMEN  MUNITION  WORKERS 
INTERVIEWED  AND  OF  THEIR  FATHERS 


Women  whose 

Women  whose 

Country  of  birth 

country  of  birth 
was  as 

father's  country 
of  birth  was 

specified 

as  specified 

United  States 

99 

54 

Foreign  countries 

19 

64 

Austria 

I 

Bohemia 

"l 

2 

Canada 

2 

4 

Denmark 

1 

I 

England 

5 

11 

Germany 
Hungary 

'  1 

9 
10 

Ireland 

3 

11 

Italy 

1 

Z 

Norway 

1 

1 

Poland 

3 

Russia 

"l 

2 

Scotland 

3 

4 

Switzerland 

I 

Total 

118 

118 

24 


THE   WOMEN   AT   WORK 

More  than  one-half  of  the  group  of  women  muni- 
tion workers  were  foreign-born  or  of  foreign  par- 
entage. Fifty- four  were  native  born  with  native- 
born  fathers,  and  45  others  were  native  born  but 
of  foreign  parentage.  Eleven  of  the  19  foreign- 
born  girls  came  from  the  British  Isles  (five  from 
England,  three  from  Ireland,  and  three  from 
Scotland),  leaving  only  eight  who  were  born  in 
other  European  countries.  Of  the  foreign-born 
fathers,  26  came  from  the  British  Isles.  Eleven 
of  the  women  were  of  German  or  Austrian  par- 
entage, but  they  were  employes  of  many  years' 
standing.  Several  of  them  told  the  investigators 
that  no  new  workers  of  German  origin  had  been 
taken  on  at  the  plant  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war  boom. 

Often  the  long-experienced  workers  were  bitter 
against  the  "foreigners'*  and  blamed  them  vigor- 
ously for  the  problems  in  living  and  working  con- 
ditions. An  Irish-born  girl  said  proudly,  in  a  rich 
brogue,  that  there  were  no  foreigners  in  her  room 
in  the  factory.  "The  boss  is  a  pleasant  Irish  gen- 
tleman, and  he  won't  stand  for  them.  Come  to 
think  of  it,  there  is  a  few  Polish  girls,  but  they're 
real  refined  and  they  speak  the  language  almost 
as  well  as  I  do  myself." 

Since  the  processes  of  cartridge  making  require 
workers  with  quickness  and  dexterity  rather  than 
long  training,  it  is  natural  that  young  women 
should  make  up  the  major  part  of  the  group. 
Table  3  shows  the  ages  of  those  who  were  inter- 
viewed. 

25 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

TABLE     3.— AGES     OF     WOMEN     MUNITION     WORKERS 
INTERVIEWED 


Age 

Women 

Less  than  18  years 
18  years  and  less  than  21 
21  years  and  less  than  24 
24  years  and  less  than  27 
27  years  and  less  than  30 
30  years  and  less  than  33 
33  years  and  less  than  36 
36  years  and  less  than  39 
39  years  and  less  than  42 
42  years  and  less  than  45 
45  years  or  more 

5 
27 
32 
16 
9 
7 
5 
6 
3 
3 
5 

Total 

118 

Exactly  one-half  of  the  118  women  were  be- 
tween eighteen  and  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and 
less  than  one- fourth  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty. 
In  the  youth  of  the  girls  employed  cartridge-mak- 
ing affords  a  parallel  rather  than  a  contrast  to 
other  manufacturing  occupations.  According  to 
the  Federal  Census  37  per  cent  of  all  women 
engaged  in  manufacturing  occupations  are  under 
twenty-one.*  A  number  of  women  said  that 
they  had  begun  work  at  the  age  of  twelve  or 
thirteen,  and  three  even  younger,  indicating 
a  formerly  lax  enforcement  of  the  child  labor  law, 
or  the  lack  of  any  effective  law  at  the  time  when 
they  went  to  work.  Forty-three  began  when  they 
were  fourteen  years  old,  and  all  but  eight  were  at 
work  by  the  time  they  were  eighteen. 

As  might  be  expected  from  their  youth,  the 
majority  were  unmarried.  Conjugal  condition  is 
shown  in  Table  4. 


*  Thirteenth  U.  S.  Census,  1910,  Vol.  IV.,  Occupation  Statis- 
tics, p.   312  ff. 

26 


THE   WOMEN   AT   WORK 

TABLE    4.— CONJUGAL   CONDITION    OF    WOMEN   MUNI- 
TION WORKERS  INTERVIEWED 


Conjugal  condition 

Women 

Single 
Married 
Widowed 
Deserted 
Divorced 

96 
11 

7 
3 

1 

Total 

118 

As  many  as  81.4  per  cent  were  single.  Some 
of  the  married  women  welcomed  the  possibility 
of  work  in  the  shops,  for  they  might  not  have 
been  able  to  meet  the  conditions  of  employment  in 
any  other  occupation.  The  opportunity  to  work  at 
night  gave  them  a  chance  to  manage  their  house- 
holds and  to  earn  money  at  the  same  time,  and 
exhausting  as  the  strain  was,  the  extra  income 
meant  a  valuable  piecing  out  of  the  family  re- 
sources. Although  the  percentage  of  married 
women  in  the  group  investigated  seems  compara- 
tively small,  the  application  to  the  total  force  of 
4,000  women  employed  in  Bridgeport  of  the  pro- 
portions shown  by  the  table  would  indicate  that 
approximately  370  married  women  worked  in  the 
munition  plants,  and  that  the  number  of  widows 
and  deserted  or  divorced  wives  employed  was 
about  as  large.  Many  of  these  women  had  homes 
and  children  to  care  for. 

The  personal  information  given  by  these  118 
munition  workers  shows,  then,  a  relatively  stable 
class  of  working  women,  with  whom  had  mingled 
a  few  venturesome  recruits  from  distant  places. 
Their  earlier  working  experience  was  varied  and 

27  ' 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

rarely  related  to  cartridge-making  as  a  preparation 
or  training.  Alert  and  ambitious,  interested  and 
willing  to  talk  of  their  work  and  its  advantages 
and  handicaps,  they  were  prepossessing  represen- 
tatives of  American  working  women.  Among 
them  were  natives  of  10  foreign  countries,  but 
the  large  majority  were  girls  born  in  the  United 
States,  educated  in  American  schools,  and  set- 
tled in  Bridgeport  before  the  war  boom.  Many 
of  them  had  worked  in  this  occupation  for  years ; 
nearly  half,  five  years  or  longer.  About  one-fourth 
were  thirty  years  old  or  more.  Only  one  in  20 
was  less  than  eighteen,  but  the  majority  were  not 
yet  twenty-four. 

They  represented  the  important  tasks  for  wom- 
en in  cartridge-making  and  their  clear  descrip- 
tions of  their  work  gave  a  vivid  picture  of  women 
in  munition  plants. 


28 


CHAPTER  III 
CARTRIDGE   MAKING  AND   ITS   DANGERS 

ALTHOUGH  Bridgeport  manufactures  a  va- 
riety of  munitions,  nearly  all  of  the  thou- 
sands of  women  employed  in  connection  with 
them  are  at  work  upon  one  single  product,  car- 
tridges.* For  the  most  part  their  work  is  fairly 
light  and  easy  and  calls  for  natural  dexterity  and 
speed  rather  than  for  long  training.  The  shell  of 
the  cartridge,  or  the  cartridge  case,  is  made  by 
fashioning  a  small  round  disk  of  brass  or  copper 
into  a  thimble-shaped  metal  cup,  which  in  succes- 
sive processes  is  drawn  out  into  a  longer,  thinner 
tube.  It  is  finally  equipped  at  one  end  with  a  small 
percussion  cap  called  the  primer  and  tipped  at  the 
other  with  the  bullet.  The  explosion  of  the  primer 
fires  the  charge  of  powder  which  in  turn  sends  out 
the  bullet. 

PROCESSES 

Several  of  the  early  processes  on  the  cartridge 
cases  are  performed  on  dial  machines,  before 
which  the  women  operators  are  seated.  The  wom- 
en receive  the  material  in  the  form  of  the  small 
brass  cups  from  which  the  cartridge  cases  are  to 
be  formed.  The  worker  slips  the  cups  into  hollow 
dies  set  in  the  revolving  dial,  and  these  pass  under 

*  See  note,  p.  3. 

29 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

punches  which  draw  out  the  cups  into  longer  and 
thinner  cylinders.  The  women  said  that  this  work 
(called  drawing)  was  easy  but  very  exacting  and 
something  was  "apt  to  happen  to  the  machine" 
if  their  attention  was  diverted.  Sometimes  the 
machines  were  run  at  such  speed  that  they 
had  to  be  stopped  to  allow  them  to  cool,  and 
they  were  likely  to  get  out  of  order  when  geared 
high. 

The  successive  drawings  leave  the  tubes  uneven 
in  length,  and  they  are  clipped  to  conform  to 
standard.  Women  feed  the  shells  into  automatic 
machines  which  perform  this  process,  known  as 
trimming. 

After  the  cartridge  case  has  been  shaped,  the 
"head"  is  fitted  with  a  small  percussion  cap  called 
the  primer,  a  process  which  is  also  performed  on 
a  dial  machine.  The  primer  has  already  been 
loaded  with  fulminate  of  mercury,  one  of  the  most 
powerful  explosives  used,  and  the  girls  are  always 
afraid  the  primers  will  explode  in  the  machine  if 
they  are  in  any  way  defective. 

Unless  the  cartridge  conforms  precisely  to  speci- 
fied dimensions  and  structure  it  is  a  worthless 
product.  To  avoid  premature  explosion,  failure 
to  explode  at  all,  or  failure  to  fit  the  rifle  for  which 
it  is  made,  its  parts  must  be  carefully  inspected 
again  and  again  throughout  the  process  of  manu- 
facture. Large  numbers  of  girls  worked  as  in- 
spectors, an  occupation  which  requires  good  eye- 
sight, but  for  which  youth  and  inexperience  are 
not  obstacles.  "We  are  running  a  kindergarten 

30 


CARTRIDGE   MAKING 

in  our  department  this  summer,"  said  a  woman 
who  was  in  charge  of  a  number  of  fourteen  and 
fifteen-year-old  girls  who  were  working  as  inspec- 
tors in  the  summer,  but  were  planning  to  go  back 
to  school  in  the  autumn. 

One  of  the  most  important  inspections  takes 
place  just  before  loading.  The  girls  watch  for 
any  imperfections  and  especially  for  "high"  pri- 
mers, or  primers  that  are  not  fitted  closely  down 
into  the  heads  of  the  shells.  Another  important 
inspection  occurs  just  after  charging.  The  girls 
make  sure  that  the  proper  amount  of  powder  is  in 
the  shells,  that  none  have  been  left  half -empty,  and 
that  no  powder  is  spilled. 

Formerly  women  had  actually  loaded  both  pri- 
mers and  shells,  but  by  the  summer  of  1916  this 
part  of  the  work  was  usually  done  by  men.  Work- 
ing at  the  machine  which  inserts  the  charge  of 
powder  in  the  open  end  of  the  empty  cartridge 
case,  or  "shell,"  is  a  group  which  usually  consists 
of  two  men  and  four  or  more  girls.  The  girls 
fill  plates  with  primed  shells  and  the  men  place 
them  in  the  machines  which  put  into  each  shell  the 
proper  amount  of  powder.  According  to  the  com- 
pany officials,  smokeless  powder  is  used  for  war 
goods,  and  is  much  less  dangerous  to  handle  than 
black  powder. 

The  number  of  girls  included  in  the  investiga- 
tion who  were  at  work  in  these  different  processes 
is  shown  in  Table  5. 

31 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

TABLE  5.— OCCUPATIONS  OF  WOMEN  MUNITION  WORK- 
ERS INCLUDED  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 


Occupation 

Women 

Inspecting 
Heading 

33 
12 

Plate  filling 

12 

Priming 
Drawing 
Trimming 

12 
11 
11 

Packing 

9 

Gauging 
Loading 

5 
4 

Miscellaneous 

31" 

Total 

1406 

"Includes  anvilling  3,  instructing  3,  annealing  2,  pointing  2, 
shelling  paper  shells  2,  stamping  2,  varnishing  2,  winding  2,  as- 
sembling 1,  drilling  1.  lubricating  bullets  1,  making  battery  cups  1. 
pasting  1,  placing  wads  in  paper  shells  1,  piercing  1,  shaking  1. 
sizing  primers  1 ,  stock  work  1 ,  swaging  1 ,  weighing  1 ,  and  labeling  1 . 
Some  of  these  processes  were  performed  in  making  sport  goods. 

"Information  as  to  occupation  is  not  available  for  25  of  the  165 
women  included  in  the  investigation. 

About  a  fourth  were  inspectors.  Others  were 
drawing,  trimming",  priming,  plate-filling,  head- 
ing, packing,  gauging,  and  loading,  while  in  a 
miscellaneous  group  no  less  than  21  other  proc- 
esses were  represented. 

Cartridge-making,  with  its  many  processes,  is 
not  a  new  occupation  for  women,  but  the  rush  of 
war  orders  and  the  speeding  up  process,  seemed 
likely  to  increase  the  liability  to  accidents  and  dis- 
ease. 

DANGERS 

For  the  six  months  from  May  25  to  November 
25,  1916,  574  accidents  to  munition  workers  in 
the  fourth  district  of  the  state,  resulting  in  inca- 
pacity for  a  day  or  longer,  were  reported  by  em- 
ployers, in  accordance  with  law,  to  the  Connecticut 

32 


CARTRIDGE   MAKING 

Workmen's  Compensation  Commission.  All  the 
plants  which  manufacture  munitions  in  this  dis- 
trict are  situated  in  Bridgeport.  In  the  only  two 
plants  which  employed  women,  33  accidents  to 
women  occurred.  During  the  same  period,  in  one 
of  the  largest  plants  of  the  district,  83  claims  for 
compensation  were  made  by  munition  workers,  of 
which  25  were  made  by  women.  Something  more 
than  trivial  injury  is  implied  in  these  cases,  since 
by  the  terms  of  the  law,  compensation  cannot  be 
claimed  unless  disability  has  lasted  for  more  than 
ten  days.*  Thus  it  may  be  said  with  almost  exact 
accuracy  that  in  the  munition  industry  in  Bridge- 
port one  woman  was  injured  each  week  through- 
out the  year  seriously  enough  to  disable  her  for 
ten  days  or  longer.  These  figures,  of  course,  take 
no  account  of  injuries  due  to  industrial  poisoning, 
or  to  illness  caused  directly  or  indirectly  by  the 
work  and  its  conditions. 

Representatives  of  the  company  have  made  the 
statement  that  while  there  have  been  a  few  fatal 
accidents  among  the  men,  there  have  been  no  fatal 
accidents  to  women  workers  for  several  years. 
They  also  declared  that  a  committee  on  accidents 
exists,  and  that  thousands  of  dollars  have  been 
spent  on  safety  appliances,  but  as  further  informa- 
tion was  denied  the  investigators,  the  methods  of 


*  Under  the  Connecticut  Workmen's  Compensation  Act, 
compensation  amounting  to  50  per  cent  of  weekly  wages  is 
paid  during  the  period  of  disability  for  injuries  causing  in- 
capacity for  more  than  ten  days.  Work  accidents  resulting  in 
incapacity  for  ten  days  or  less  are  not  compensated. 

33 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

the  committee  cannot  be  described  here  nor  its  ef- 
ficiency gauged. 

Fear  of  the  danger  of  accidents  was  constant 
among  the  employes,  and  together  with  rumors 
that  were  rife  indicated  the  need  for  such  a 
frank  policy  of  publicity  as  to  accident  pre- 
vention as  has  been  adopted  by  progressive  em- 
ployers elsewhere.  The  girls'  statements  are  of 
great  significance  as  suggesting  the  psychological 
difficulty  of  working  in  constant  fear.  Some  had 
seen  serious  or  even  fatal  accidents,  and  a  number 
who  had  themselves  experienced  injury  told  the  in- 
vestigators of  hands  maimed  by  exploding  primers 
or  fingers  crushed  in  the  presses.  One  girl  showed 
two  crooked  fingers,  permanently  stiff,  which  had 
been  injured  by  an  unguarded  machine  a  year 
and  a  half  before.  The  punch  broke,  flew  out  and 
penetrated  the  two  fingers ;  blood  poisoning  set  in, 
and  the  girl  suffered  severely  for  two  months.  "I 
often  used  to  complain  about  that  machine,"  she 
said,  "but  they  didn't  put  guards  on  it  until  after 
I  was  hurt."  Her  case  was  one  afterwards  found 
on  the  records  in  the  Bridgeport  office  of  the  Work- 
men's Compensation  Commission  of  Connecticut. 

Work  with  the  loaded  primers  and  shells,  they 
said,  was  never  free  from  danger.  One  worker 
described  her  experience  some  years  before  when  a 
girl  beside  her  in  the  loading  room  was  killed,  an- 
other seriously  injured,  and  she  herself  struck  by 
a  piece  of  machinery.  "We  always  run,"  she 
added,  "but  you  never  really  have  time  to  get 
away.  It's  all  over  before  you  know  what's  hap- 

34 


CARTRIDGE   MAKING 

pened.  It's  just  as  if  a  big  wind  came  and  blew 
you  across  the  room." 

Even  small  explosions  made  the  new  girls  very 
nervous,  but  through  familiarity  with  dan- 
ger experienced  workers  paid  little  attention  to  it. 
A  kind  of  fatalism  possessed  some  of  them.  "We 
have  only  once  to  die,"  said  a  woman  who  had  seen 
men  seriously  injured,  and  had  herself  been  pros- 
trated by  the  force  of  an  explosion,  "and  it  might 
as  well  be  in  the  shops  as  anywhere  else." 

Workers  spoke  of  the  fact  that  the  charging  ma- 
chines had  lately  been  "put  in  cages,"  as  one  of 
them  explained,  "so  if  there's  an  explosion  they 
won't  fly  all  over  the  room."  The  general  testi- 
mony was  that  since  the  passage  of  the  Connecti- 
cut Workmen's  Compensation  Act  in  1913  the 
machines  have  been  better  guarded.  But  accident 
prevention  has  not  gone  far  enough  to  rid  work 
in  the  loading  rooms  of  serious  dangers. 

Furthermore,  after  injuries  are  received  a  gen- 
eral ignorance  of  the  terms  of  the  law  or  a  kind 
of  inertia  about  taking  the  necessary  legal  steps 
often  prevents  employes  from  getting  the  assist- 
ance provided  by  the  terms  of  the  act.  "One  of 
the  firemen  told  me  I  could  get  compensation  from 
the  company,"  said  a  woman  whose  eye  had  been 
hurt,  "but  I've  never  bothered  about  it,"  thus  ex- 
pressing in  one  casual  sentence  the  attitude  of 
many  of  the  employes  toward  the  accidents  that 
happen  during  the  course  of  their  work. 

In  common  with  other  American  states  (except- 
ing Massachusetts  and  California),  Connecticut 

35 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

makes  no  provision  for  compensation  for  occupa- 
tional disease.*  Processes  in  the  munition  indus- 
try requiring  the  use  of  fulminate  of  mercury  en- 
tail a  double  risk.  Not  only  is  there  need  of  con- 
stant caution  on  account  of  possible  explosions,  but 
also  from  the  risk  of  poisoning.  Fulminate  of 
mercury  is  irritating  to  the  skin  and  to  mucous 
membranes.  The  Newman  Committee  in  its  stud- 
ies of  the  health  conditions  in  English  munition 
plants  recognizes  fulminate  dermatitis  and  con- 
junctivitis as  one  of  the  industrial  intoxications 
caused  by  work  on  war  material.! 

Many  of  the  women  working  on  the  priming 
machines  and  in  the  loading  room  in  the  Bridge- 
port factories  attributed  eruptions  of  the  skin, 
inflamed  eyes  and  abscesses  to  the  use  of  fulmi- 
nate of  mercury.  Several  showed  little  scars  on 
their  hands  and  arms  where  eruptions  had  "dried 
up."  Individuals  differ  greatly  in  their  suscep- 
tibility to  this  irritant,  many  being  able  to  handle 
it  with  impunity,  while  others  develop  inflamma- 
tion of  the  skin  so  severe  as  to  necessitate  their 
giving  up  the  work.  One  girl  who  two  years 
before  had  left  a  lower  paid  position  in  a  store  for 
a  $12  one  in  the  munition  factory  believed  that 
the  fulminate  of  mercury  was  undermining  her 
health.  She  said  that  she  felt  sick  most  of  the 


*  An  amendment  to  the  Compensation  Act,  introduced  into 
the  Connecticut  legislature  in  the  winter  of  1916-17,  provided 
for  the  inclusion  of  occupational  diseases,  but  failed  of  en- 
actment as  law  during  the  session. 

t  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Memorandum 
No.  8.  Special  Industrial  Diseases,  p.  6.  London,  1916. 

36 


CARTRIDGE   MAKING 

time,  and  that  few  girls  stayed  in  her  department 
long. 

In  this  factory,  according  to  the  company's 
statement,  as  many  as  1,500  men  and  women 
were  exposed  to  the  danger  from  fulminate.  Of- 
ficials admitted  that  they  had  recognized  the 
danger  and  said  that  about  every  two  months 
their  own  physician  made  medical  examinations 
of  the  workers  who  handled  fulminate,  and  that 
it  was  their  policy  to  transfer  to  other  departments 
those  found  suffering  from  poisoning.  Such  steps 
as  these  are  recommended  as  preventive  measures 
by  the  Newman  Committee  which  also  urges  pro- 
tective clothing  for  workers  exposed,  and  facilities 
and  opportunities  for  frequent  washing. 

In  our  own  country  Dr.  Alice  Hamilton  of  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  who  has 
made  special  investigations  of  occupational  poi- 
sons for  the  bureau,  in  a  letter  to  the  Foundation, 
gives  similar  advice  concerning  fulminate  poison- 
ing: 

Scrupulous  personal  cleanliness  is  the  only  preventive 
of  this  form  of  poisoning,  and  this  would  really  involve 
frequent  hand  washing,  for  it  is  almost  impossible,  es- 
pecially in  hot  weather,  to  avoid  touching  the  face  or 
neck  or  arms  with  the  fingers.  For  those  who  are  very 
susceptible  to  fulminate  poisoning,  there  is  nothing  to  do 
but  to  give  up  the  work.  Otherwise  they  run  the  risk  of 
a  very  distressing  eruption  which  may  spread  over  the 
whole  body. 

Although  the  company  stated  that  it  had  spent 
large  sums  of  money  in  installing  sanitary  appara- 

37 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

tus  and  that  when  the  plants  were  enlarged  and 
rebuilt  the  sanitary  arrangements  were  greatly 
improved,  one  worker  employed  in  a  process  in 
which  she  handled  fulminate  reported  that  em- 
ployes in  her  department  were  forbidden  to  wash 
their  hands  until  after  the  factory  whistle  blew 
for  dismissal,  and  that  the  only  washing  facilities 
were  long  troughs  with  a  number  of  spigots.  She 
also  said  that  no  towels  were  provided.  In  Eng- 
land, the  Newman  Committee  recommended  that 
protective  clothing,  overalls,  caps,  veils,  and 
aprons  should  be  supplied  in  all  munition  facto- 
ries. No  such  precautions  were  reported  in  the 
Bridgeport  shops. 

In  addition  to  the  facts  already  noted  that  in 
Connecticut  no  compensation  is  provided  for  in- 
jury due  to  industrial  disease,  and  that  workers 
suffering  from  accidents  may  claim  no  compensa- 
tion unless  disabled  for  more  tnan  ten  days,  there 
is  still  a  third  to  be  mentioned.  The  Connecticut 
compensation  law  requires  the  payment  of  only 
50  per  cent  of  the  injured  worker's  wages.  In 
contrast  with  the  more  advanced  legislation  in 
other  states,  such  as  New  York,  Massachusetts 
and  Ohio,  which  allow  two-thirds  of  wages,  this 
is  inadequate.  The  larger  percentage  of  wages 
to  be  paid  during  disability  is,  of  course,  a  greater 
incentive  to  employers  for  prevention,  as  well 
as  a  more  adequate  protection  for  the  worker 
whose  normal  income  is  cut  off  because  of  an 
accident,  while  his  expenses  are  usually  increased. 


38 


CHAPTER  IV 
HOURS  OF  LABOR  AND  NIGHT  WORK 

THE  urgent  need  for  speed  and  the  desire  for 
maximum  output  without  too  great  an  in- 
crease in  the  capacity  of  the  plant  led  to  the 
employment  of  women  for  long  hours  by  day,  and 
to  the  organization  of  night  shifts,  in  order  that 
there  might  be  no  cessation  in  production  at  any 
time  during  the  twenty-four  hours.  It  is  com- 
monly supposed  that  such  a  scarcity  of  labor  as 
prevailed  in  Bridgeport  when  its  industries  began 
to  expand  gives  workers  an  advantage  in  bargain- 
ing and  enables  them  to  secure  favorable  condi- 
tions. The  story  of  what  happened  In  this  com- 
munity is,  therefore,  of  more  than  local  impor- 
tance. Neither  the  shortage  of  labor  nor  the  labor 
legislation  of  the  state  proved  to  be  a  real  protec- 
tion for  the  unorganized  working  women  against 
the  well-known  dangers  of  long  hours  and  night 
work. 

Since  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  Bridgeport  has 
had  the  reputation  of  being  an  "eight-hour  town." 
The  impression  is  doubtless  due  to  the  widespread 
story  of  the  successful  strikes  for  the  shorter  work 
day  carried  on  during  the  summer  of  1915,  as 
already  described.  Wages  did  not  appear  to  be 
rising  with  profits,  and,  as  rents  and  the  cost  of 
living  were  increasing,  unrest  prevailed.  It  was 
then  that  Bridgeport  was  disturbed  by  the  numer- 

39 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

ous  strikes  which  established  the  eight-hour  day 
with  ten-hour  pay  in  so  many  industries. 

It  is  a  common  experience,  however,  that  to  in- 
sure the  continuance  of  gains  suddenly  won  some 
form  of  organization  is  needed.  Sometimes  new 
standards  may  be  maintained  by  the  enactment 
of  a  labor  law;  sometimes  their  permanence  de- 
pends almost  wholly  upon  the  effectiveness  of 
trade  unionism.  The  women  in  the  munition  in- 
dustry had  not  themselves  won  the  eight-hour  day 
through  their  own  efforts,  and  were  not  organized 
to  maintain  it.  Hence  they  were  unable  to  offer 
any  effective  resistance  when  little  by  little  they 
were  robbed  of  the  gift,  their  schedules  of  work- 
ing hours  being  modified,  first  by  frequent  over- 
time, and  later  by  the  company's  regarding  this 
overtime  as  part  of  the  regular  daily  hours.  "We 
are  still  considered  an  eight-hour  department," 
said  one  worker  in  1916,  "but  considering  don't 
make  the  day  seem  any  shorter  when  they  keep 
us  working  ten  hours  as  they  did  every  day  last 
week." 

The  women  were  reluctant  to  return  to  the  lon- 
ger hours.  "If  the  girls  had  only  stuck  together 
we  could  have  kept  the  eight-hour  day,"  said  one, 
"but  you  can't  do  anything  with  those  foreign 
girls."  The  money  earned  by  the  time  over  eight 
hours  was  often  referred  to  as  a  "bonus,"  but 
in  fact  the  extra  work  was  usually  paid  for  at  ex- 
actly the  same  rate  as  the  previous  eight  hours. 
Generally  the  girls  would  gladly  have  exchanged 
the  additional  pay  for  the  two  hours'  leisure. 

40 


.  HOURS    OF   LABOR 

On  one  of  the  hot  summer  days  a  busy  worker 
said :  "We  begin  at  seven  in  the  morning  and  if 
the  work  piles  up  on  the  boss,  we  have  to  stay 
till  five  or  six  o'clock  in  the  evening.  That's  been 
pretty  regular  for  the  last  three  or  four  weeks. 
I  was  all  in  yesterday,  and  when  four  o'clock  came 
I  told  the  boss  I  couldn't  sit  at  the  machine  any 
longer,  but  he  wouldn't  let  me  off." 

That  by  1916  the  eight-hour  day  was  not  uni- 
versal is  shown  in  Table  6,  indicating  the  daily 
hours  of  the  women  interviewed  during  that  sum- 
mer. The  schedule  was  not  uniform  in  all  de- 
partments, and  for  some  workers  it  varied  on 
different  days  of  the  week.  The  table  shows  the 
longest  day  in  each  weekly  schedule,  since  the 
long  day  was  most  frequent  during  the  week. 

TABLE  6.— DAILY  HOURS  OF  LABOR  FOR  WOMEN  WORK- 
ERS INCLUDED  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 


Daily  hours  of  labor* 

Women 

Less  than  8  hours 
8  hours  and  less  than    9 
9  hours  and  less  than  10 
10  hours 

36 
45 
14 
39 

Total 

1346 

°In  cases  where  the  schedule  varies  on  different  days  of  the  week, 
the  longest  day  has  been  tabulated,  since  this  is  the  length  of  work- 
ing day  which  occurs  most  frequently  during  the  week. 

"Information  as  to  daily  hours  of  labor  is  not  available  for  31 
of  the  165  women  Included  in  the  investigation. 

Thus  nearly  three  women  in  10  worked  ten 
hours  a  day,  and  53  of  the  134  reporting  worked 
nine  hours  or  longer.  The  phrase  in  the  table, 
"less  than  eight  hours,"  means  the  actual  work- 
ing time  exclusive  of  time  allowed  for  lunch. 

41 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

The  luncheon  time  for  this  group  was  fifteen  min- 
utes. Thus  "less  than  eight  hours"  actually  rep- 
resented the  eight-hour  shift.  The  extraordinarily 
short  luncheon  recess  was  a  peculiarity  of  the 
eight-hour  schedule  and  was  usually  mentioned  as 
the  principal  objection  to  the  shorter  day.  Nearly 
everybody  found  fifteen  minutes  too  brief  to  be 
either  salutary  or  restful.  Moreover,  in  certain 
rooms  the  workers  were  not  allowed  to  leave  dur- 
ing that  time  and  the  foremen  were  careful  to  see 
that  the  limit  was  not  exceeded.  In  other  cases 
the  quarter  hour  could  be  stretched  to  cover  twenty 
or  twenty-five  minutes.  Some  girls,  especially 
those  who  on  account  of  the  early  hour  of  begin- 
ning work  had  left  home  without  breakfast,  ate 
their  lunches  at  their  machines  whenever  they 
liked.  In  a  few  instances  where  the  eight-hour 
day  had  been  succeeded  by  ten  hours,  a  correspond- 
ing change  in  the  length  of  the  lunch  time  had  not 
been  made  and  the  long  stretch  was  relieved  only 
by  the  brief  quarter  hour  interval. 

Students  of  the  effects  of  industrial  fatigue  have 
laid  stress  upon  the  dangers  of  long  working 
hours  without  proper  intervals  for  rest  and  food. 
The  recommendations  of  the  English  Health  of 
Munition  Workers  Committee*  are  emphatically 
in  favor  not  only  of  an  hour  for  the  main  meal 
period,  but  also  of  short  breaks  of  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  during  the  long  spells  of  work.  Even 
on  eight-hour  shifts  the  minimum  allowance  for 
meal  time  should,  in  their  opinion,  be  half  an  hour. 


*  See  Part  II,  pp.  135-137. 

42 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

After  the  proper  co-ordinations  are  learned  high 
speed  has  few  inherent  dangers;  but  if  women 
driven  to  a  pace  that  approximates  their  maxi- 
mum possible  speed  are  kept  at  work  without  ade- 
quate intermission  throughout  a  long  day,  or  even 
a  comparatively  short  one,  cumulative  fatigue  sets 
in. 

Table  7  shows  the  length  of  the  lunch  period  for 
the  women  for  whom  information  on  this  point 
was  secured. 

TABLE    7.— LENGTH    OF    LUNCH   PERIOD    FOR   WOMEN 
MUNITION  WORKERS   INCLUDED  IN  THE   INVESTIGA- 
TION 


Length  of  lunch  period 

Women 

Fifteen  minutes 
Thirty  minutes 
Sixty  minutes 

46 
4 

85 

Total 

135° 

"Information  as  to  length  of  lunch  period  is  not  available  for  3° 
of  the  165  women  included  in  the  investigation. 

The  majority,  63  per  cent,  had  a  full  hour  for 
lunch,  but  34  per  cent  had  the  short  recess  of  only 
fifteen  minutes.  Eight  hours  with  an  interval  of 
but  fifteen  minutes  at  the  task  of  slipping  end- 
less successions  of  small  brass  cups  into  revolv- 
ing dials,  with  machines  run  at  a  speed  so  high 
that  they  must  be  stopped  at  intervals  to  allow 
them  to  cool,  or  of  feeding  shells  into  automatic 
machines,  or  of  testing  cartridges  hour  after 
hour,  cartridge  after  cartridge,  with  the  discovery 
of  defects  as  the  only  break  in  the  intensity  of 
attention  is  a  strain  that  should  be  required  from 
no  one. 

43 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

Twenty-one-year-old  Nellie,  even  though  she 
came  fresh  from  a  New  Hampshire  farm,  found 
the  eight-hour  day's  work  on  the  heading  machine 
very  heavy.  "The  vibrations  of  the  big  machine 
shake  your  body  so  that  after  a  few  hours  you're 
all  tired  out  and  nervous.  There  never  is  a  day 
when  I'm  not  tired  at  night,  and  I'm  as  strong 
as  most." 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  in  the  different 
departments  of  the  plant  the  schedules  of  hours 
were  not  uniform,  and  even  for  the  same  worker 
the  length  of  the  days  varied  within  the  week. 
The  length  of  the  working  week  showed,  therefore, 
great  diversity,  as  Table  8  indicates. 

TABLE     8.— WEEKLY     HOURS     OP     LABOR     OF    WOMEN 

MUNITION  WORKERS  INCLUDED   IN  THE 

INVESTIGATION 


Weekly  hours  of  labor 

Women 

45  hours  and  less  than  47 
47  hours  and  less  than  49 
49  hours  and  less  than  51 
51  hours  and  less  than  53 
53  hours  and  less  than  55 
55  hours 
More  than  55  hours 

35tt 
45 
6 

16 
29 
2 

Total 

133ft 

°Of  the  35  women  In  this  group,  1  worked  46J£  hours  one  week 
and  3934  hours  every  alternate  week. 

^Information  as  to  weekly  hours  of  labor  is  not  available  for  32  of 
the  165  women  included  in  the  investigation. 

More  than  one-fifth  of  the  women  whose  hours 
could  be  ascertained  worked  the  legal  limit  of 
fifty-five  hours.  According  to  their  own  state- 
ments, two  worked  more  than  the  maximum  time 
allowed  by  law.  The  majority  worked  less  than 
forty-nine  hours  a  week.  "The  long  day  certainly 

44 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

does  take  the  starch  out  of  you,"  said  one  girl  who 
had  worked  fifty-five  hours  a  week.  These  facts, 
taken  in  connection  with  Table  6,  showing  the 
daily  hours  on  the  longest  day  for  each  worker, 
indicate  that  long  days  were  offset  by  shorter 
days  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  a  comparatively 
moderate  working  week.  Nevertheless,  it  is  the 
usual  experience  of  workers  that  an  eight-hour  day 
on  two  days  of  the  week  cannot  fully  compensate 
for  the  fatigue  of  a  ten-hour  day  on  the  other  four. 

The  variations  in  the  working  day  were  illus- 
trated in  the  hours  of  one  young  girl  who  was  em- 
ployed at  the  process  of  anvilling.  She  began  work 
at  7  a.  m.  She  was  working  53^  hours  a  week  on 
an  irregular  schedule  which  set  the  closing  hour 
at  five  o'clock  the  first  three  days  of  the  week,  four 
o'clock  on  the  fourth,  and  three  o'clock  on  the  last 
two,  with  only  a  quarter  of  an  hour  for  lunch  each 
day  of  the  week. 

In  the  hours  of  beginning  work,  listed  in  Table 
9,  we  have  further  indication  of  variations  in  the 
individual  schedules. 

TABLE  9.— HOUR    OP    BEGINNING    WORK  FOR  WOMEN 
MUNITION  WORKERS  INCLUDED  IN  THE   INVESTIGA- 
TION 


Hour  of  beginning  work 

Women 

7  a.m. 
3  p.m. 
6:30  p.m. 
11  p.m. 

126 
9 
3 
2 

Total 

140° 

"Information  as  to  hour  of  beginning  work  is  not  available  for  23 
of  the  165  women  included  in  the  investigation,  and  two  others  not 
counted  in  the  table  began  work  at  7  a.m.  one  week  and  3  p.m.  the 
next. 

45 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

The  large  majority  of  the  girls  for  whom  in- 
formation was  secured  went  to  work  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Others  began  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  at  half -past  six  in  the 
evening,  or  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  According 
to  statements  made  by  representatives  of  the  com- 
pany, three  months  later,  namely  on  December  5, 
1916,  the  summer  of  1916  had  been  a  transitional 
period  in  the  management  of  the  works.  Under 
a  new  administration  new  schedules  of  hours  had 
been  gradually  introduced  in  different  depart- 
ments and  women  were  then  employed  in  the 
works  in  but  two  shifts.  The  day  shift  worked 
the  first  five  days  in  the  week  from  7  a.m.  to  4 :36 
p.m.,  with  one  hour  off  at  noon,  and  on  Saturday 
from  7  a.m.  to  12  m.,  a  total  of  eight  hours  and 
thirty-six  minutes  on  each  day  from  Monday  to 
Friday,  with  a  working  week  of  forty-eight  hours 
in  all.  Overtime  might  prolong  the  day  until  6 
p.m.  five  days  in  the  week,  making  a  total  working 
week  of  fifty-five  hours,  the  limit  allowed  by  the 
Connecticut  labor  law.  The  night  shift  worked 
from  6:30  p.m.  to  4:36  a.m.,  with  a  half-hour  re- 
cess, nine  hours  and  thirty-six  minutes  each  night 
from  Monday  to  Friday,  inclusive.  The  overtime 
schedule  was  reported  to  be  until  5  a.m.,  making 
ten  hours  a  night  and  fifty  hours  a  week.  Thus, 
although  the  hours  have  been  changed,  night  work 
for  women  continues,  and  both  by  day  and  by 
night  women  not  infrequently  work  as  long  as 
ten  hours.  Moreover,  the  changes  have  resulted 
in  lengthening  rather  than  in  shortening  hours. 

46 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

Night  work  for  women  was  a  conspicuous  fact 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  big  Bridgeport  car- 
tridge factories  when  the  field  work  of  this  inves- 
tigation was  in  progress  in  July  and  August,  1916. 
About  seven  in  the  evening  a  crowd  of  men  and 
children  began  to  line  up  outside  the  factory  fence, 
carrying  packages  of  food.  Many  of  them  were 
the  husbands  and  children  of  the  women  who 
worked  on  the  early  night  shift  from  3  p.m.  until 
11  p.m.  During  the  fifteen  minutes'  rest  period 
which  came  at  seven  o'clock  they  hurried  down  to 
the  fence  to  get  their  lunches.  Again,  an  hour 
before  midnight,  the  women  came  out  of  the  fac- 
tory with  the  crowds  of  men,  and  their  places  were 
taken  by  others  who  worked  until  seven  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  The  day  workers  began  at  seven 
o'clock  and  stopped  at  three.  In  this  way  the 
twenty-four  hours  were  divided  into  three  eight- 
hour  shifts.  In  some  of  the  departments  which 
operated  on  a  different  schedule  women  stayed  all 
night  long,  working  from  half-past  six  at  night 
until  five  in  the  morning. 

With  few  exceptions  night  work  was  unpopular 
with  the  young  working  girls  of  Bridgeport.  Their 
natural  desire  for  recreation,  for  the  society  of 
young  people,  found  no  outlet  while  they  had  to 
work  or  sleep  in  the  evening  hours  when  most  of 
their  friends  were  free.  In  fact,  night  work  was 
not  in  great  favor  with  those  of  any  age.  An 
exception  was  a  widow  who  worked  from  11  p.m. 
until  7  a.m.,  leaving  her  four-year-old  daughter  in 
her  sister's  care.  She  said  that  she  liked  the  work 

47 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

in  summer  at  night  because  the  factory  was  cool 
then,  and,  except  when  the  weather  was  very  hot, 
she  could  usually  manage  to  get  about  six  hours' 
sleep  in  the  daytime.  Almost  every  one  else  who 
worked  at  night  objected  to  it.  Sufficient  sleep 
was  hard  to  get.  Street  noises  and  the  ordinary 
household  happenings  made  it  doubly  difficult  to 
become  accustomed  to  the  unusual  hours.  Change 
of  meal  times  often  meant  loss  of  appetite  and  in- 
digestion. Women  in  some  departments  were 
moved  back  and  forth  every  two  weeks  from  a 
night  shift  to  a  day  shift,  and  these  conditions 
made  it  even  harder  to  acquire  the  habit  of  sleep- 
ing by  day.  Moreover,  to  timid  women,  who  went 
to  and  from  their  work  in  the  late  hours  of  the 
night  and  in  the  early  morning,  the  dark  and 
lonely  streets  seemed  a  perpetual  menace.  To 
those  who  lived  a  long  distance  from  the  plant 
there  was  the  difficulty  of  transit,  for  car  service 
was  overtaxed  and  during  these  hours  jitneys  are 
not  always  safe,  especially  for  young  girls. 

One  girl  wrho  had  been  working  in  the  cartridge 
factory  for  seven  years  in  several  different  de- 
partments had  been  doing  "priming"  for  six 
months.  The  preceding  winter  she  worked  on  the 
night  shift  from  6  p.m.  to  6  a.m.,  but  she  found 
it  impossible  to  eat  or  sleep  normally  and  "nothing 
seemed  right,"  so  she  changed  back  to  the  eight- 
hour  day  shift  as  soon  as  she  could.  "The  girls 
certainly  earn  every  cent  they  get,"  she  said. 
"We  have  to  work  every  minute  without  any  let- 
up at  all." 

48 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

Another,  who  alternated  a  day  shift  for  two 
weeks  with  a  night  shift  for  the  same  period, 
said  that  although  the  two-week  interval  was  not 
long  enough  for  her  to  get  accustomed  to  sleeping 
in  the  daytime,  anything  was  better  than  working 
on  the  eleven-to-seven  shift  all  the  time,  because 
being  out  on  the  streets  late  at  night  made  her  so 
nervous.  A  married  woman,  who  had  come  to 
Bridgeport  at  the  beginning  of  the  boom,  and 
whose  husband  also  worked  in  a  munition  factory, 
said  that  she  was  first  put  on  the  shift  from  eleven 
at  night  until  seven  in  the  morning,  and  that  at 
about  five  in  the  morning  she  used  to  get  so  drowsy 
she  could  hardly  work.  Later  her  hours  were 
changed  to  the  shift  from  3  p.m.  to  11  p.m.,  and 
she  liked  that  much  better;  yet  there  was  always 
the  matter  of  getting  home  after  eleven.  She  had 
learned  not  to  take  a  jitney  unless  the  passengers 
were  women  only. 

Mrs.  J.,  an  American-born  woman  who  mar- 
ried a  foreigner,  and  was  helping  to  support  their 
four  children  by  working  in  the  shops  from  half- 
past  six  at  night  until  five  in  the  morning,  said 
that  although  the  people  on  her  shift  were  in 
the  factory  for  ten  hours  and  a  half  they  did  not 
by  any  means  work  all  that  time.  Besides  the 
half  hour  allowed  for  lunch,  there  was  often  a 
good  deal  of  time  to  wait  while  the  machines  were 
being  repaired.  A  "drag"  took  twenty  minutes 
to  repair  and  serious  trouble  longer.  Several  stops 
were  sure  to  happen.  The  machines  always  ran 
badly  after  midnight,  she  said,  but  denied  that  the 

49 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

trouble  came  from  the  carelessness  of  the  opera- 
tors. Nevertheless  she  admitted  that  it  was  so 
hard  for  her  to  keep  awake  that  she  had  to  sing 
and  sometimes  shout  to  prevent  falling  asleep. 
Workers  on  the  day  shift  often  complained  that 
because  of  the  careless  use  of  their  machines  by 
workers  on  the  night  shift,  they  were  forced  to 
waste  time  and  thus  lose  pay  while  repairs  were 
being  made. 

A  problem  of  domestic  arrangements,  arising 
from  night  work,  had  been  temporarily  solved  in 
a  large  family  consisting  of  a  man  and  his  wife, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  B.  (both  working  in  munition  fac- 
tories), their  four  children,  Mrs.  B.'s  sister-in-law 
(also  a  munition  worker),  the  latter's  three-year- 
old  son,  and  a  man  lodger.  The  two  women  di- 
vided the  care  of  the  house  and  children.  Mrs. 
B.  worked  from  three  in  the  afternoon  until  eleven, 
while  her  sister-in-law's  hours  were  from  seven 
in  the  morning  until  three.  "Of  course,  we  don't 
get  much  chance  to  talk  things  over,"  Mrs.  B. 
said,  in  speaking  of  her  sister-in-law,  "unless  I 
can  slip  into  her  room  at  the  shop  before  she  goes 
off  at  three,  and  then  I  can  tell  her  what  I  want 
the  children  to  have  for  supper.  She's  nearly  al- 
ways in  bed  when  I  come  home  at  night."  The 
story  shows  the  abnormal  effect  of  night  work 
on  family  life. 

The  only  workers  to  whom  the  night  shifts 
seemed  acceptable  were  married  women  who 
wanted  to  take  advantage  of  the  chance  to  earn 
good  pay  in  "the  shops,"  as  the  cartridge  factory 

50 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

was  usually  called,  but  who  had  homes  and  fam- 
ilies which  needed  their  care  during  the  daytime. 
Of  course,  the  household  duties  were  neglected, 
while  the  mother  was  making  up  her  lost  sleep. 
Sometimes  older  children  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of 
the  housework  and  take  care  of  the  younger  chil- 
dren besides.  One  little  girl  of  eleven  whose  moth- 
er worked  on  an  all-night  shift  swept  the  rooms, 
washed  the  dishes  and  took  charge  of  three  young- 
er children,  including  a  baby  of  two  years,  while 
the  mother  slept.  In  spite  of  the  industry  of  the 
young  caretaker,  the  house  was  dirty  and  the  chil- 
dren sickly  looking  and  peevish. 

Night  work  for  women,  a  ten-hour  day,  and  a 
fifty-five-hour  week  were  all  permitted  under  the 
laws  of  Connecticut  at  the  time  of  this  investiga- 
tion.* In  1913  a  bill  had  been  passed  aiming  to 
prohibit  night  work  in  factories.  The  paragraph 
concerning  night  work  read  as  follows : 

No  person  under  sixteen  years  of  age  shall  be  employed 
in  any  manufacturing  or  mechanical  establishment  after 
six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon;  and  no  such  minor  shall  be 
employed  in  any  mercantile  establishment  after  six  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  on  more  than  one  day  in  each  calendar 
week,  except  during  the  period  from  the  seventeenth  to 
the  twenty-fifth  day  of  December  of  each  year;  and  no 
such  minor  and  no  female  over  sixteen  years  of  age  shall 
be  employed  in  any  such  establishment  after  ten  o'clock 
in  the  evening. 

*  This  fact  remains  true  as  the  report  goes  to  press.  Bills 
prohibiting  night  work  for  women  were  proposed  during  the 
session  of  1916-17  in  the  Connecticut  legislature,  but  they 
failed  of  passage. 

51 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

Time  and  the  coming  of  the  war  showed  that  the 
intention  of  the  law  was  better  than  its  wording. 
Note  the  phrase  "such  establishment"  in  the  last 
clause  in  the  singular.  "Obviously,"  said  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  measure,  "it  refers  to  a  mercantile 
establishment,  just  mentioned,  and  not  to  a  manu- 
facturing and  mechanical  establishment  in  the 
more  remote  clause.  Moreover,  even  if  you  think 
it  includes  them  both,  it  only  prohibits  work  after 
10  p.  m.  At  midnight  a  new  day  begins  and  the 
law  says  nothing  about  the  hour  in  the  day  when 
a  woman  may  begin  work.  Presumably  she  may 
begin  when  the  clock  has  stopped  striking  twelve 
at  night."  Taking  advantage  of  this  defect,  the 
munition  companies,  while  awaiting  a  court  deci- 
sion to  show  whether  the  law  applied  to  them  at  all, 
decided  to  obey  its  strict  letter  but  to  avail  them- 
selves of  its  inexactitude.  Girls  began  work  at 
6  p.m.  on  the  night  shift.  At  ten  they  stopped  in 
accordance  with  the  statute  designed  to  protect 
them.  For  two  hours  they  were  free  to  amuse 
themselves  in  the  factory.  At  midnight  they  be- 
gan work  again,  not  to  be  released  until  six  in 
the  morning.  Several  of  the  women  interviewed 
had  worked  on  this  shift.  They  stated  that  all  the 
women  on  the  shift  were  greatly  fatigued,  and 
one  of  them  said  that  she  had  seen  girls  fall  over 
on  the  floor  asleep  at  their  work. 

It  was  the  judge  of  the  court  of  the  town  of 
Killingly  who  made  unnecessary  this  complicated 
observance  of  law  by  declaring  that  the  prohibition 
of  night  work  applied  only  to  mercantile  estab- 

52 


HOURS    OF   LABOR 

lishments  and  not  to  factories,  and  thereafter 
nothing  prevented  the  continuous  employment  of 
women  at  night  in  any  factories  in  the  state.* 

The  neighboring  states  of  Massachusetts  and 
New  York  prohibit  night  work.  In  New  York 
state  the  highest  court  in  1915  reversed  its  own 
earlier  decision  and  declared  that  the  evidence 
then  before  it  showed  that  it  was  in  the  interest  of 
the  public  health  and  morals  to  insure  for  women 
a  period  of  rest  at  night. 

In  its  official  position  toward  night  work  the 
United  States  has  a  lesson  to  learn  from  England. 
In  the  early  days  of  the  war  England,  as  has 
been  indicated,  set  aside  the  labor  laws  in  order 
to  expedite  the  production  of  munitions  of  war. 
Excessive  hours  of  labor,  night  work  and  Sunday 
work  became  common  in  the  English  factories.  In 
spite  of  the  patriotic  fervor  with  which  English 
women  entered  the  workshops  and  undertook  the 
manufacture  of  munitions,  fatigue  accumulated 
with  the  long  hours  and  hard  work.  The  output 
became  unsatisfactory  in  quantity.  At  last  gov- 
ernment officials,  facing  the  fact  that  the  end  of 
the  war  was  likely  to  be  very  far  off,  and  realizing 
that  England's  working  force  must  be  conserved 
for  a  long  period  of  time,  took  up  the  problem 
from  the  angle  of  health  as  well  as  of  productiv- 
ity. In  September,  1915,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed under  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  "to  con- 


*  State  vs.  William  Fittz.  The  decision  was  handed  down 
October  31,  1914,  in  the  Town  Court  of  Killingly,  Conn.,  by 
Judge  H.  E.  Back. 

S3 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

sider  and  advise  on  questions  of  industrial  fatigue, 
hours  of  labor  and  other  matters  affecting  the 
physical  health  and  physical  efficiency  of  workers 
in  munition  factories  and  workshops."* 

In  the  United  States,  in  the  workshops  in  which 
vast  amounts  of  war  materials  are  being  manu- 
factured for  the  same  conflict,  no  governmental 
review  has  been  made  of  the  new  industrial  con- 
ditions, except  a  study  of  occupational  diseases 
due  to  work  on  munitions  conducted  by  the  federal 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. t  Up  to  this  hour 
manufacturers  here  have  been  turning  out  goods 
under  conditions  of  work  declared  wasteful  by 
the  English  investigators.  Employers  have  argued 
that  to  work  women  as  well  as  men  at  night  was 
the  only  way  to  reduce  the  cost  of  maintaining  the 
plants  in  order  that  they  may  yield  a  maximum 
profit,  and  for  the  same  reason  Bridgeport  em- 
ployers seem  to  be  lengthening  daily  hours.  With 
the  nation's  new  responsibilities,  with  food  likely 
to  be  higher,  with  men  workers  in  factories  likely 
to  be  fewer  and  with  women  assuming  some  of 
their  tasks,  there  should  be  no  further  delay  in 
getting  full  information  about  the  extent  and 
effects  of  night  work  in  munition  plants  all  over 
the  country,  the  length  of  day  and  night  shifts, 
the  provision  for  rest  periods  and  the  safeguards 
against  accidents  and  industrial  poisoning. 

*The  reports  of  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Com- 
mittee are  summarized  in  the  second  part  of  this  book,  pp. 

tU.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  219.  Indus- 
trial Poisons  Used  or  Produced  in  the  Manufacture  of  Ex- 
plosives, by  Dr.  Alice  Hamilton.  Washington,  1917. 

54 


CHAPTER  V 
WAGES 

ALTHOUGH  rumor  exaggerated  the  pay  actu- 
ally received,  wages  in  munition  factories  in 
Bridgeport  were  in  fact  distinctly  higher 
than  the  old  rates  for  unskilled  operatives  in  Con- 
necticut's principal  industries  before  the  war.  The 
reason  is  easily  explained.  The  munition  factories 
were  obliged  to  enlarge  their  plants.  The  work- 
ing force  had  to  be  greatly  increased,  and  it  must 
be  done  quickly  to  fill  the  urgent  war  orders.  The 
offer  of  higher  wages  was  necessary  not  only  to  at- 
tract employes  away  from  other  industries  in 
Bridgeport,  but  to  bring  in  recruits  from  other 
communities.  The  effect  on  workers,  on  other  in- 
dustries, and  on  the  standards  of  the  community 
itself  is  an  interesting  chapter  in  social  economy. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  sudden  expan- 
sion followed  a  period  of  depression.  When  the 
boom  did  come,  it  took  no  vivid  imagination  to 
arouse  in  the  workers  a  desire  to  share  in  the 
expected  windfall,  especially  as  it  followed  a  pe- 
riod of  dearth. 

Some  of  the  old  employes  of  the  cartridge  fac- 
tory were  jealous  of  the  newcomers  who  had  not 
served  their  apprenticeship  of  low  wages,  but  on 
the  whole,  the  prevailing  spirit  was  a  good  hu- 
mored wish  to  let  everybody  have  a  share.  This 
was  well  expressed  by  an  Irish  girl  who  had 

55 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

worked  for  twenty  years  in  the  cartridge  factory 
and  was  contented  with  the  $8.00  wage  which  she 
had  earned  at  labeling.  "0'  course  it's  true  that 
the  new  girls  that's  comin'  in  make  as  much  as  me 
who's  been  in  the  place  comin'  twenty  years.  Some 
there  is  that  take  that  as  a  cause  o'  complainhV. 
Some  there  is  that  ain't  satisfied  with  anything 
the  good  God  gives  them.  I  say  to  myself,  'If  I'm 
all  right  why  not  let  the  ithers  in  on  the  good 
times  too?'  " 

Employers  in  other  industries  were  forced  into 
severe  competition  for  labor,  and  some  of  them 
tried  to  point  out  to  prospective  employes  the  su- 
perior advantages  of  a  normal  trade  over  a  war 
boom.  The  alluring  advertisements  which  ap- 
peared in  the  daily  newspapers  at  the  time  told  the 
story  of  the  acute  labor  situation.  One  factory 
advertised : 

WANTED 

Men  and  Women  for  Factory  Work 
HIGH  WAGES  PAID.    WORK  GOOD  AND  STEADY 

Another  advertisement  ran : 

WANTED— GIRLS 
On  Power  Presses,  Tapping  Machines  and  Light, 

Clean  Assembling. 

HIGH  WAGES  PAID  TO  BEGINNERS. 
8  Hour  Shop. 

Others  were: 

WANTED 

A  few  A-l  Machinists,  48-Hour  Shop 

Saturday  afternoons  off. 

56 


WAGES 

STEADY  WORK  FOR  GOOD  MECHANICS 

Excellent  opportunity  for  skilled 
men  to  earn  increasing  bonus. 

THIS  IS  NOT  A  WAR  BOOM 
OUR  INDUSTRY  IS  CONSTANT. 

Altogether,  an  outsider  would  probably  have 
concluded  that  for  labor  Bridgeport  had  become  an 
El  Dorado.  Manufacturers  gravely  commented  on 
the  independence  of  their  employes  due  to  the  ab- 
normal demand  for  their  services.  "If  you  don't 
like  the  way  I  work  I  can  leave  and  get  a  job  at 
the  munition  shops,"  was  said  to  be  the  retort  of 
the  employe  whose  work  was  criticized  or  whose 
demands  were  refused.  Housewives  saw  in  the  sit- 
uation a  new  explanation  of  the  chronic  shortage 
in  domestic  servants.  The  older  inhabitants  re- 
gretted the  influx  of  "foreigners,"  the  increasing 
number  of  arrests,  and  the  growth  of  cheap  amuse- 
ment places,  and  predicted  dire  consequences 
to  the  morality  of  the  city.  Citizens  com- 
mented on  the  effect  of  the  "fat  pay  envelopes" 
on  the  working  people.  "They  don't  know 
what  to  do  with  their  money,"  said  a  Bridgeport 
manufacturer  in  speaking  of  the  higher  wages 
that  "good  times"  had  brought  to  his  em- 
ployes. 

Yet  the  statistics  of  the  weekly  earnings 
of  women  as  shown  in  Table  10  do  not  give 
the  impression  of  an  abnormally  high  rate  of 
pay. 

57 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 


TABLE  10.— WEEKLY  EARNINGS  OF  WOMEN  MUNITION 
WORKERS  INCLUDED  IN  THE  INVESTIGATION 


Women 

Weekly  earnings 

Number 

Per  cent 

Less  than  $8 

1 

.6 

$8  and  less  than  $9 

17 

10.4 

$9  and  less  than  $10 

20 

12.2 

$10  and  less  than  $11 

45 

27.5 

$11  and  less  than  $12 

16 

9.8 

$12  and  less  than  $13 

40 

24.4 

$13  and  less  than  $14 

15 

9.1 

$14  and  less  than  $15 

5 

3.0 

$15  and  less  than  $16 

4 

2.4 

$16  or  more 

1 

.6 

Total 

164a 

100.0 

Median  weekly  earnings 

$10.97 

"Information  as  to  earnings  is  not  available  for  one  of  the  165 
women  included  in  the  investigation. 

Only  one  of  the  164  women  whose  earnings  are 
given  in  Table  10  earned  less  than  $8.00  a  week 
as  a  rule,  but  half  the  workers  earned  less  than 
$11  a  week.  The  exact  median  earnings  were 
$10.97.  Six-tenths  of  one  per  cent  earned  $16  or 
more. 

These  wages  were  undoubtedly  high  when  com- 
pared with  the  low  level  generally  prevailing  for 
women  in  factories.  In  1913  a  special  commission 
which  had  been  appointed  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tion of  employment  of  wage-earning  women  and 
minors  in  Connecticut,  made  its  report  to  the  leg- 
islature. Their  data  on  wages  showed  that  in  that 
period,  just  preceding  the  war,  the  median  wage 
for  women  in  the  cotton  industry  was  $9.57,  in 
the  manufacture  of  silk  $7.65,  in  the  making  of 
corsets  $7.87,  in  the  metal  trade  $7.43,  and  in 

58 


WAGES 

manufacturing  rubber  $7.56.*  No  data  are  avail- 
able to  show  what  wages  were  paid  in  the  cartridge 
factory  in  1913,  but  the  general  testimony  indi- 
cates an  increase  after  the  war  began.  Whether 
or  not  workers  were  actually  better  off  in  1916 
than  before  the  war  can  be  ascertained  by  con- 
sidering wages  in  comparison  with  the  cost  of 
living.  The  inroads  made  by  soaring  rents  and 
the  rapidly  rising  cost  of  food  and  other  necessi- 
ties are  discussed  in  the  following  chapter. 

New  girls  were  generally  paid  a  fixed  day  rate 
until  they  learned  how  to  do  the  work,  but  ex- 
cept for  this  brief  period  the  majority  were  paid 
on  a  combination  time  and  piece  basis.  A  flat  day 
rate  was  paid  for  which  a  specified  output  was  re- 
quired and  which  became  in  effect  a  guaranteed 
minimum.  For  production  beyond  the  require- 
ment, payment  was  on  a  piece  basis  so  that  a 
premium  was  placed  on  large  output.  Some  work- 
ers, however,  were  paid  altogether  by  piece  rates 
while  some  few  others  such  as  stock  girls  and  in- 
structors were  regular  week  workers.  In  some 
departments,  however,  according  to  the  girls' 
statements,  no  girl  was  allowed  to  make  more  than 
a  fixed  sum.  In  the  summer  of  1915,  when  many 
departments  of  the  cartridge  factory  organized 
the  work  in  three  shifts,  beginning  at  7  a.m.,  3 
p.m.,  and  11  p.m.  respectively,  a  simultaneous  ad- 
vance was  made  in  piece  rates,  making  it  usually 


*State  of  Connecticut,  Report  of  the  Special  Commission  to 
Investigate  the  Conditions  of  Wage  Earning  Women  and 
Minors  in  the  State,  1913,  p.  36. 

59 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

possible  to  earn  as  much  in  eight  hours  as  had 
been  earned  formerly  in  ten.  For  night  work  a 
small  bonus  was  customarily  paid. 

Apparently  the  increases  were  not  so  great  for 
the  clerical  force.  In  one  establishment  an  of- 
ficial stated  without  qualification  that  the  factory 
force  was  better  paid  than  the  office.  A  girl  who 
was  earning  $11.50  a  week  heading  shells  spoke 
regretfully  of  the  sacrifices  her  family  had  made 
in  taking  her  sister  out  of  the  factory  and  giving 
her  a  stenographer's  training ;  for  the  sister,  back 
in  the  shops  as  a  stenographer,  was  earning  only 
50  cents  a  week  more  than  the  girl  in  the  factory 
who  told  the  story. 

As  in  the  gaining  of  the  eight-hour  day,  the 
real  test  of  the  new  standards  secured  for  labor 
by  the  sudden  growth  of  an  industry  is  their  per- 
manence. When  once  the  larger  force  was  organ- 
ized, the  eight-hour  day  was  gradually  lengthened. 
So,  during  the  summer  of  1916,  the  management 
appeared  to  be  engaged  in  a  policy  of  reducing 
rates  of  pay.  "We  used  to  get  12£  cents  a  thou- 
sand," said  an  inspector,  "and  that  certainly  did 
make  slick  pay  for  a  girl.  But  now  they  only  give 
us  nine  cents  for  the  same  work."  Even  where 
piece  rates  were  not  reduced  the  tremendous  speed 
at  which  the  machinery  was  driven,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  many  of  the  girls,  so  injured  the 
machines  that  they  could  not  turn  out  as  much  as 
they  used  to.  The  continual  stoppages  for  repairs 
made  big  inroads  on  the  workers'  earning  time. 

Three  munition  workers  in  one  family  ascribed 
60 


WAGES 

their  decreased  piece  rates  in  the  factory  to  the 
competition  of  foreign  girls.  It  seemed  probable 
that  other  factors  were  the  desire  of  the  man- 
agement to  cheapen  the  cost  of  production  and  the 
inability  of  the  workers  to  maintain  the  standard 
of  wages  which  had  been  won  merely  by  the  force 
of  circumstances. 

The  results  of  good  pay  are  seldom  ques- 
tioned, especially  by  the  people  who  receive  it; 
but  in  the  case  of  the  women  munition  workers  of 
Bridgeport,  it  has  already  been  made  clear  that 
serious  issues  have  come  up  along  with  the  high 
rates  of  wages.  In  an  attempt  to  fill  the  large 
war  orders  as  fast  as  possible,  women  have  been 
induced  to  work  long  hours  and  at  night,  and  have 
been  put  to  work  near  or  with  explosives  in  ways 
which  sometimes  mean  accident,  industrial  poison- 
ing or  other  illness. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  also  that  along  with 
the  good  luck  of  the  workers  strong  enough  to 
meet  new  demands  for  speed  in  industry,  may  go 
increased  distress  for  those  members  of  the  com- 
munity unable  to  compete  with  the  young  and  the 
vigorous.  In  the  annual  report  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Charities  of  Bridgeport  for  1915-16,  occurs 
this  significant  paragraph: 

While  a  general  increase  in  wages  resulted  from  boom 
conditions,  yet  the  widowed,  the  physically  handicapped 
and  the  inefficient  suffered.  In  the  rush  the  poor  were 
institutionalized,  while  the  border-line  cases  were  sub- 
merged. 

Higher  wages  brought  about  through  a  general 
61 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

leveling  up  of  industrial  standards  are  beneficial, 
but  higher  wages  due  to  a  temporary  boom  are 
sometimes  danger  signals.  Their  advantages  may 
be  offset  by  a  strain  easily  endured  for  a  time, 
but  which  in  the  long  run  may  undermine  the 
health  of  workers  and  change  the  character  of  the 
community.  High  wages  lasting  only  a  brief  time 
are  not  sufficient  compensation  for  lowered  stand- 
ards in  the  other  conditions  of  work. 

In  addition  to  wages  that  permanently  insure 
the  fundamentals  of  life,  and  shop  conditions 
that  insure  the  welfare  of  the  worker,  there  are 
other  needs  such  as  those  of  education  and  health 
protection,  transportation,  and  housing,  which 
must  depend  upon  the  collective  resources  of  the 
community.  Bad  housing,  disregard  of  law  and 
order,  the  breakdown  in  civic  responsibility  jeop- 
ardize the  morale  of  a  modern  industrial  town. 
Thus  the  industry  which  through  too  rapid  growth 
has  bewildered  civic  consciousness  and  rendered 
municipal  resources  inadequate  must  be  judged 
not  merely  by  its  high  wages,  but  by  the  sum 
total  of  its  influence  on  standards  of  living. 


62 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  WOMEN  AT  HOME 

THE  effect  of  a  sudden  overgrowth  of  popu- 
lation on  recreation,  education,  transporta- 
tion, and  especially  housing,  was  clearly  pic- 
tured in  the  homes  of  munition  workers.  It  was 
impossible  for  lack  of  time  to  make  a  detailed  bud- 
get study.  Nevertheless  facts  about  the  great  dif- 
ficulty workers  had  in  finding  a  place  to  live  and 
the  rapid  rise  in  rents,  and  comments  on  the  in- 
creasing cost  of  other  necessities,  showed  that  its 
industrial  expansion  had  brought  to  the  city  large 
problems  not  to  be  solved  by  individual  action.  In 
so  far  as  the  households  of  the  100  girls  living  at 
home  may  be  considered  typical,  the  incomes  of 
the  families  of  munition  workers  were  relatively 
high.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  as  a  rule  their  in- 
comes should  have  made  it  possible  to  secure  com- 
fortable and  healthful  living  conditions.  But  even 
though  many  of  the  families  interviewed  earned 
much  more  than  the  amounts  which  are  usually 
described  as  "living  wages"  they  often  suffered 
from  a  lack  of  housing  accommodations,  and  of 
educational  and  recreational  facilities. 

Weekly  family  incomes  ranged  from  $10  a  week 
to  $60  or  more.  Table  11  shows  the  significant 
fact  that  in  the  group  of  86  families  who  gave 
full  information  concerning  their  earnings,  only 
27  had  weekly  incomes  of  less  than  $30.  These 

63 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 


TABLE   11.— TOTAL  WEEKLY  INCOME   IN  FAMILIES  OF 

WOMEN      MUNITION      WORKERS      INTERVIEWED,      BY 

NUMBER  OF  CONTRIBUTORS 


Families  having 

All 

Weekly  income 

fam- 

1 con- 

2 con- 

3 con- 

4 con- 

5 con- 

ilies 

tribu- 

tribu- 

tribu- 

tribu- 

tribu- 

tor 

tors 

tors 

tors 

tors 

$10  and  less  than  $15  .  . 

4 

3 

.. 

7 

$15  and  less  than  $20.  . 

1 

1 

$20  and  less  than  $25  .  . 

.  . 

io 

'2 

. 

12 

$25  and  less  than  $30  .  . 

6 

1 

7 

$30  and  less  than  $35  .  . 

4 

5 

'i 

10 

$35  and  less  than  $40  .  . 

2 

2 

i 

5 

$40  and  less  than  $45  .  . 

§ 

2 

7 

i 

'i 

11 

$45  and  less  than  $50  .  . 

7 

2 

1 

10 

$50  and  less  than  $55  .  . 

5 

3 

1 

9 

$55  and  less  than  $60  .  . 

2 

2 

$60  or  more 

J 

3 

'  6 

12 

Total 

5 

27 

32 

13 

9 

86° 

"Of  the  100  families  for  which  records  were  secured,  14  did  not 
give  complete  information  on  family  incomes. 

were  all  families  with  not  more  than  three  wage- 
earners.  The  highest  incomes  were  made  pos- 
sible by  the  combined  contributions  of  several 
workers.  Exceptional  even  among  the  12  fami- 
lies whose  weekly  incomes  are  in  the  highest 
class  were  the  M's.  The  high  wages  of  the  four 
working  sons  and  daughters  added  to  the  father's 
earnings  as  a  machinist,  totalled  more  than  $4,000 
a  year,  when  they  were  all  working  steadily.  They 
made  a  picture  of  normal,  happy  family  life,  with 
the  mother  caring  for  the  household,  and  the  two 
youngest  children  in  school.  They  lived  in  a  large, 
comfortable  house,  with  a  fruit  and  vegetable  gar- 
den beside  it,  and  all  the  signs  of  prosperity  were 
in  evidence. 

Another  family  group  with  a  yearly  income  of 
over  $4,000  was  made  up  of  three  generations: 

64 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

a  widow,  her  four  children,  two  of  whom  had  mar- 
ried and  come  home  to  live,  and  her  two  grand- 
children. Five  of  the  family  were  wage-earners 
(three  in  the  munition  shops),  and  the  widowed 
mother  added  to  the  income  by  subletting  rooms 
in  an  adjoining  flat. 

The  women  munition  workers  showed  them- 
selves to  be  generous  contributors  to  the  family 
income,  as  Table  12  shows. 

TABLE  12.— PROPORTION  OF  WEEKLY  EARNINGS  GIVEN 
TO  THE  HOME  BY  WOMEN  MUNITION  WORKERS  INTER- 
VIEWED WHO  WERE  LIVING  WITH  THEIR  FAMILIES 


Per  cent  of  earnings  given  to  home 

Women 

Less  than  25 
25  and  less  than  50 
50  and  less  than  75 
75  and  less  than  100 
100 

1 
15 

22 
10 
49 

Total 

97° 

°Of  the  100  women  interviewed,  who  were  living  with  their 
families,  two  did  not  give  information  on  this  point  and  one  re- 
ported only  irregular  contributions  to  the  home. 

Almost  exactly  one-half  of  those  who  reported 
on  this  point  turned  all  of  their  earnings  into  the 
family  purse.  Many  of  the  younger  workers 
seemed  to  recognize  an  unquestioned  filial  duty  in 
giving  their  pay  envelopes  unopened  to  their  moth- 
ers. On  the  other  hand,  the  dependence  of  many 
of  the  families  upon  the  women  workers  gave 
them  an  important  position  in  directing  family 
life.  Even  young  girls,  on  account  of  their  earn- 
ing capacity,  had  a  controlling  hand  in  making 
family  plans. 

An  example  of  the  importance  of  the  woman's 
65 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

contribution  to  the  family  income  is  seen  in  the 
eventful  history  of  a  young  English  couple.  The 
husband  had  come  from  England  to  Bridgeport 
eight  years  before,  and  sent  for  his  wife  and  child 
to  follow  him.  Hard  times  soon  came,  and  his 
wife  told  of  the  terrible  days  when  her  husband 
could  get  only  two  or  three  days'  work  a  week, 
and  when  they  had  to  make  the  pay  of  $4.50  cover 
the  week's  expenses  for  themselves  and  their  baby, 
with  the  added  anxiety  about  how  they  could  man- 
age when  the  next  baby  came.  The  hard  times 
passed,  but  after  two  more  children  were  born 
the  husband  again  found  himself  unable  to  provide 
for  all  their  wants.  He  was  not  a  skilled  work- 
man, and  he  began  to  fear  that  his  wages  could 
never  keep  pace  with  the  increasing  family  de- 
mands. His  wife  came  to  the  rescue,  and  while 
she  was  earning  $9.00  a  week  on  the  night  shift 
he  was  advancing  from  the  work  of  a  machinist's 
helper  by  a  series  of  regular  promotions  which 
would  eventually  bring  him  a  position  as  a  ma- 
chinist. In  the  meantime,  by  using  their  joint  earn- 
ings, they  had  been  able  to  move  into  one  of  the 
company's  new  apartment  houses,  where  they  were 
enjoying  the  hardwood  floors,  bathroom,  set  tubs, 
electric  lights,  and  gas  for  cooking.  "It's  'eaven 
compared  with  the  old  place  we  used  to  live  in," 
said  the  wife. 

The  pretty  young  bride  of  a  recently  appointed 
officer  on  the  police  force  had  left  the  factory 
when  she  married,  but  her  "boss"  sent  for  her  to 
come  back,  and  on  account  of  the  good  pay  she 

66 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

returned.  The  weekly  income  of  more  than  $30 
permitted  the  couple  to  live  comfortably  in  a  flat 
so  neat  and  orderly  that  it  might  have  passed  for 
a  model  in  an  exhibition.  Cut  glass  shone  from 
the  sideboard,  and  even  the  floor  was  polished. 
Mrs.  B.  said  that  she  and  her  husband  took  turns 
by  weeks  in  keeping  the  floors  in  order  and  in 
doing  the  heavy  cleaning. 

The  facts  about  income  have  already  shown  that 
in  the  majority  of  families  reporting  on  this  point 
three  or  more  wage-earners  contributed  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  home.  As  a  rule  the  munition 
workers  belonged  to  fairly  large  families.  The 
average  number  of  members,  in  the  100  families 
investigated,  was  5.1.  Two  families  had  14 
members  each,  but  with  these  exceptions  the  fam- 
ily groups  were  composed  of  not  more  than  12 
persons.  -  In  many  of  the  smaller  families  no  male 
wage-earner  was  found.  The  age  and  sex  of  the 
wage-earners  are  shown  in  Table  13. 

Eighty-nine  per  cent  of  the  male  heads  of  fam- 
ilies, 100  per  cent  of  other  males  sixteen  or  over, 
and  68  per  cent  of  the  women  sixteen  or  over,  were 
at  work  when  the  investigation  was  made.  Only 
five  out  of  the  15  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  were  at  work,  a  fact  which  may  be 
partly  accounted  for  by  the  lack  of  demand  in  the 
munition  shops  for  children  of  those  ages.  None 
of  the  children  under  fourteen  were  at  work.  Of 
the  286  wage-earners  sixteen  or  over  in  these  fami- 
lies, 179  or  62.6  per  cent  were  employed  in  muni- 
tion shops. 

67 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 


TABLE    13.— PERSONS   GAINFULLY   EMPLOYED   AMONG 

MEMBERS    OF    100    FAMILIES    OF    WOMEN    MUNITION 

WORKERS  INTERVIEWED.   BY  AGE  AND  SEX 


Age  and  sex 

All 
persons 
in 
families 

Persons  gainfully 
employed 

Number 

As  a  per 
cent  of  all 
persons 

Male  heads  of  families 
Other  males  16  years  of  age  or 
more 
Females    16   years   of  age   or 
more 
Children  14  years  of  age  and 
less  than  16 
Children  less  than  14  years  of 
age 

61 
58 
256 
15 
120 

54 
58 
174 
5 

89 
100 
68 
33 

Total 

510 

291 

57 

The  advantages  of  the  comparatively  high  in- 
comes brought  in  by  the  employment  of  so  many 
wage-earners  in  each  family,  were  in  part  offset 
by  the  conditions  of  living.  The  families  of  muni- 
tion workers  were  quite  ready  to  talk  of  the  soar- 
ing rents.  In  some  cases  it  had  meant  the  hard- 
ship of  family  separation.  One  widowed  mother 
who  worked  on  the  night  shift  in  the  shops  was 
not  able  to  keep  her  home  for  her  four  children. 
Three  of  them  were  put  in  an  orphan  asylum,  and 
she  took  the  youngest  with  her  and  went  to  board 
with  a  relative. 

Stories  of  the  hardships  of  the  rent  situation 
found  their  way  into  the  papers.  They  told  of 
one  woman  with  six  children,  whose  husband  had 
recently  been  moved  to  a  sanitarium  and  who  com- 
plained to  the  city  clerk  that  her  rent  was  raised 
from  $17  to  $18,  the  next  month  to  $19,  and  two 
months  later  to  $24.  When  she  made  the  com- 

68 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

plaint  she  had  just  been  notified  that  the  rent 
was  about  to  be  raised  once  more.  Another  tenant, 
living  in  a  four-room  apartment  in  a  three-family 
house,  was  ordered  out  because  he  could  not  af- 
ford to  pay  $25  a  month.  Within  seven  months 
the  rent  had  already  been  raised  from  $16  to  $20. 
The  three  large  families  in  the  house  were  com- 
pelled to  use  one  toilet,  and  there  were  no  bath 
tubs  or  wash  tubs  in  the  house. 

Even  a  long  record  as  desirable  tenants  often 
did  not  free  a  family  from  the  rent-raising  bug- 
bear. An  English-born  mother  and  daughter  had 
lived  for  twenty-five  years  in  the  same  house,  and 
had  the  pride  of  long  possession  in  their  flat.  The 
mother  had  also  been  a  munition  worker  in  her 
youth,  and  remembered  the  founder  of  the  shops. 
It  was  distressing  to  have  a  speculator  buy  the 
house  and  raise  the  rent  from  $12  to  $14,  and 
later  to  $16.  It  was  then  sold  to  an  Italian  with 
the  understanding  that  the  rents  were  $18,  and 
naturally  the  new  owner  insisted  upon  having  that 
amount  paid. 

At  one  time  it  was  rumored  that  landlords  were 
very  generally  refusing  to  take  families  with  more 
than  one  child,  and  even  a  family  composed  of  two 
or  three  adults  found  it  hard  to  get  a  "rent."  One 
young  married  couple,  with  an  income  of  $18  a 
week  from  the  husband's  work  as  loader  at  the 
cartridge  shop,  could  not  find  a  flat  they  could  af- 
ford, and  lived  for  the  first  months  of  their  mar- 
ried life  in  one  room,  with  the  furniture  they  had 
bought  for  their  new  home  stacked  about  them. 

69 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

One  family  was  found  in  utter  despair.  The 
house  in  which  they  lived  was  to  be  sold  to  a  Hun- 
garian who  could  not  speak  English.  They  were 
obliged  to  move.  The  old  mother,  when  inter- 
viewed, had  just  returned  from  a  search  for  a 
rent.  She  had  first  hunted  in  the  neighborhood  in 
which  they  had  long  lived  with  their  friends,  and 
where  they  wished  to  remain.  Failing  to  find 
anything  there,  she  had  searched  the  city  and  final- 
ly gone  to  look  at  the  company  houses,  but  the 
only  apartments  for  rent  there  rented  for  $35,  a 
sum  entirely  beyond  the  means  of  a  family  in 
which  the  three  young  daughters  were  the  only 
wage-earners.  They  would  have  to  "clear  out"  in 
a  few  days,  and  the  chance  of  finding  anything 
they  could  afford  seemed  small. 

Another  family  which  had  been  living  in  one  of 
a  group  of  rather  decrepit  four-family  houses  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  city,  had  its  rent  for  five  rooms 
raised  within  a  year  from  $8.00  to  $16.00.  This 
family  found  that  the  way  out  was  to  move  to  one 
of  the  nearby  beaches,  preferring  a  small  cold 
beach  cottage  to  the  struggle  for  space  in  the  city. 
Other  families  also  solved  the  problem  in  the  same 
way.  In  the  fall  of  1915,  when  people  who  had 
been  staying  at  the  shore  for  the  hot  months  at- 
tempted to  return  to  the  city,  rooms  were  so  hard 
to  get  that  many  decided  to  stay  where  they 
were.  They  put  up  extra  stoves  in  the  flimsily 
constructed  cottages  and  shacks  and  prepared 
to  spend  the  winter  months  at  the  shore.  The 
season  was  a  severe  one  and  they  suffered  from 

70 


THE   WOMEN   AT    HOME 

cold.  But  the  frequent  snow  and  ice,  the  lack 
of  proper  sanitary  and  heating  arrangements  and 
the  long  car  ride  to  their  work,  were  not  the  only 
drawbacks  to  healthful  home  life.  The  usual 
cheap  summer  amusement  places  still  flourished 
and  exercised  distinctly  undesirable  influ- 
ences. 

Not  only  did  the  old  residents  of  Bridgeport  suf- 
fer hardships  from  the  housing  shortage  and  the 
boom  in  rents,  but  newcomers  found  it  difficult, 
if  not  impossible,  to  secure  living  quarters.  Many 
stories  were  told  of  men  who  had  come  to  work  in 
the  munition  plants,  but  who  after  a  short  stay 
had  been  forced  to  return  because  they  could 
find  no  home  to  which  they  might  bring  their 
families. 

Bridgeport  is  proud  of  her  tree-lined  streets  on 
which  are  modest  one-  and  two-family  houses,  set 
back  from  the  sidewalks,  in  yards  many  of  which 
contain  good-sized  grass  plots,  hedges,  and  trees. 
Some  of  these  houses  are  owned  by  the  families 
who  live  in  them,  people  who  regarded  themselves 
as  fortunate  when  they  saw  their  neighbors  forced 
to  leave  their  rented  homes  and  go  to  live  in  the 
crowded  three-decker  wooden  tenements  permitted 
by  the  old  law.  The  building  code  of  1915  forbade 
the  construction  of  the  latter  type,  but  just  before 
its  passage  row  after  row  of  flimsy  structures  was 
erected,  to  accommodate  from  three  to  12  fam- 
ilies in  each  building.  The  foreign-born  people 
were  usually  found  in  the  neighborhoods  where  the 
three-deckers  abounded. 

71 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

The  tendency  of  the  one-family  house  to  give 
way  to  the  multiple  dwelling  was  exemplified  in  a 
comparison  of  the  types  of  houses  occupied  by  the 
100  families  of  munition  workers  investigated. 
Only  24  families  lived  in  single  houses.  Twenty- 
seven  of  the  remaining  76  families  lived  in  two- 
family  houses,  a  type  now  common  in  Bridgeport. 
Almost  all  of  the  other  families  were  in  three-, 
four-,  or  six-family  houses. 

Twenty-three  of  the  100  families  owned  their 
homes,  and  in  some  instances  they  held  other 
property  besides.  A  German  family  valued  their 
seven-room  house  at  $4,500  and  were  waiting  to 
sell  it  for  that  amount  so  that  they  could  move  to 
a  260-acre  farm  which  they  owned  in  the  nearby 
country.  A  mother  and  daughter  had  divided 
their  old  homestead  into  four  apartments,  keeping 
one  for  themselves. 

Table  14  shows  the  rent  paid  by  the  families  of 
munition  workers  interviewed. 

Within  the  city  itself  all  available  accommoda- 
tions were  made  use  of,  and  munition  workers 
were  found  living  in  every  section.  (See  map 
showing  location  of  homes  of  women  munition 
workers,  frontispiece.)  The  rent  paid  varied  with 
the  locality,  the  type  of  house,  and  the  number  of 
rooms  occupied.  The  majority  of  the  100  families 
were  living  in  rented  houses  or  flats.  In  more 
than  one-half  of  the  rent-paying  families  the 
amount  paid  per  month  was  $16  or  more.  As  a 
rule  families  occupied  at  least  four  rooms.  Four 
families  had  houses  of  10  rooms  each,  and  paid  at 

72 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 


h  O 

O  tf 

n  '- 

H  O 


r 

o 


4 

room 


a 

1-1  O 

8 


73 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

least  $20  a  month  for  rent  for  the  ample  accom- 
modations. 

Viewed  from  metropolitan  standards  the  rents 
cited  are  perhaps  not  exorbitant,  but  for  Bridge- 
port families  they  were  contrasted  not  with  rents 
in  other  cities,  but  with  the  markedly  lower 
rents  of  a  year  before.  The  most  usual  increase 
in  the  monthly  rent  was  $2.00  or  $2.50  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  although  it  ranged  as  high  as 
$8.00,  $9.00  or  $10.00  in  some  cases.  Twelve 
families  had  had  to  pay  an  increase  of  between  20 
and  30  per  cent  and  eight  had  had  their  rents 
raised  by  50  per  cent  or  more  of  the  amount  which 
they  were  paying  a  year  before.  The  median  in- 
crease was  22  per  cent. 

Again  and  again  householders  said  that  they  did 
not  dare  to  ask  for  badly  needed  repairs  because 
they  feared  that  their  request  would  only  be  made 
an  occasion  for  extortionate  advances.  The  situ- 
ation was  of  course  hardest  on  families  with  high 
standards  of  living.  "The  Italians  and  Hungari- 
ans can  stand  the  high  rents  because  they  can 
crowd  together,"  said  one  American  woman. 

With  the  rapidly  increasing  rents,  overcrowding 
was  inevitable.  A  Hungarian  family  of  11 
persons,  five  of  them  children  under  fourteen,  oc- 
cupied four  rooms  in  a  flimsy  "three-decker"  in  the 
rear  of  a  dirty  court.  Another  Hungarian  family 
crowded  its  14  members  into  four  rooms  in  still 
another  three-decker.  The  amount  of  space  per 
person  in  the  homes  of  the  women  interviewed  is 
shown  in  Table  15. 

74 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

TABLE  15.— PERSONS  PER  ROOM  IN  FAMILIES  OF  WOMEN 
MUNITION  WORKERS  INTERVIEWED 


Persons  per  room 

Families 

Not  more  than  1 
More  than  1  and  not  more  than  1  *A 
More  than  1  %  and  not  more  than  2 
More  than  2 

62 
27 
9 
2 

Total 

100 

The  heavy  demand  for  houses  and  the  conse- 
quent congestion  were  reflected  in  the  fact  that 
11  families  were  living  under  such  crowded  condi- 
tions that  each  family  averaged  more  than  one 
and  one-half  persons  to  each  room. 

Clearly  Bridgeport  was  not  an  Arcadia  for  the 
hundred  families  studied  in  this  investigation. 
Although  they  represented  high  incomes  as  well 
as  low,  increased  rents  and  high  prices  absorbed 
much  of  the  surplus  in  even  the  well-to-do  fam- 
ilies. 

While  the  more  prosperous  families  were  able 
to  give  their  children  business  or  high  school  train- 
ing some  of  the  poorer  ones  were  barely  able  to 
provide  the  necessaries  of  life.  In  other  instances 
they  failed  to  do  even  that  and  were  obliged  to 
resort  to  public  charity.  This  was  the  case  in 
certain  families  who  had  no  male  wage-earner. 

Each  month  it  became  less  possible  to  pare  down 
other  items  in  order  to  pay  the  high  rents,  since 
all  the  necessities  of  life  were  becoming  more  ex- 
pensive. Less  meat,  less  bread,  less  milk  were  to  be 
had  for  a  dollar  than  formerly.  "New  York  has 
nothing  on  us  for  high  prices,"  said  a  woman 

75 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

who  kept  account  of  her  daily  expenses  and  had 
just  compared  it  with  her  brother's  in  the  larger 
city.  "The  prices  here  in  Bridgeport  are  some- 
thing fierce,"  was  the  comment  of  a  loader  who 
had  only  himself  and  his  young  wife  to  provide 
for.  "Only  four  days  ago  I  brought  home  $20 
which  should  have  lasted  a  week.  Now  there's  only 
$2.10  left." 

High  prices  were  reflected  not  only  in  the  stor- 
ies of  girls  living  at  home,  but  affected  also  the 
women  who  were  boarding  or  living  away  from 
their  families. 

Alice  had  been  a  salesgirl  in  a  Massachusetts 
city  for  six  years  before  she  decided  to  come  to 
Bridgeport  in  1915  to  work  in  the  cartridge  shops. 
Here  she  earned  $11  a  week,  paid  $2.50  a  week 
for  her  room  and  took  her  breakfast  and  supper 
at  a  nearby  boarding  house.  Her  expenses  for 
lodging  and  food,  including  her  lunch,  came  to 
more  than  $6.00  a  week.  In  her  opinion  with  the 
cost  of  clothes,  carfare,  washing  and  all  other  ne- 
cessities, no  girl  could  live  in  Bridgeport  on  less 
than  she  made. 

Mary  was  a  frail  woman  of  forty,  quite  alone 
in  the  world,  who  rented  a  five-room  apartment 
and  to  meet  the  cost  of  living  sublet  three  of  her 
rooms  to  lodgers, — three  men  and  three  women. 
When  visited,  she  was  recuperating  from  a  se- 
rious illness  which  still,  after  four  weeks  at  the 
hospital  and  at  home,  had  left  her  too  weak  to 
return  to  work.  Though  her  earnings  as  a  rule 
came  to  $10  a  week,  without  the  income  from  her 

76 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

lodgers  she  could  not  have  made  both  ends  meet 
during  her  sickness.  The  $10  a  week  when  she 
was  well  did  not  permit  sufficient  savings  for  ill- 
ness. 

Mrs.  P.  had  been  forced  to  go  back  into  the  fac- 
tory after  she  had  divorced  her  husband.  For 
$3.00  a  week  she  rented  a  furnished  room  from  a 
woman  who  allowed  her  to  prepare  her  own  break- 
fast and  do  some  laundry  work  in  the  kitchen.  She 
bought  her  supper  in  a  restaurant  where  one  could 
get  a  "real  good  meal"  for  25  cents.  She  made 
$13  a  week  and  was  able  to  save  for  the  rainy  day 
which  she  believed  was  sure  to  come. 

Mrs.  S.  was  a  capable  worker  of  more  than  fif- 
teen years'  experience  in  munition  making.  She 
began  work  at  sixteen  and  except  for  the  brief  in-* 
terval  of  her  married  life  had  been  working  ever 
since  in  several  different  departments.  She  had 
no  dependent  persons  to  care  for  and  had  found 
a  comfortable  home  with  friends  who  lived  in  an 
attractive  new  house  near  one  of  the  parks.  For 
this  she  paid  $5.00  a  week.  Her  regular  $13  a 
week  for  instructing  the  young  inspectors  gave 
her  security  and  enabled  her  to  put  by  a  little  each 
week  after  she  had  paid  for  her  board  and  other 
expenses. 

Helen  was  a  girl  of  nineteen  who,  left  alone  in 
the  world  by  the  death  of  both  parents,  had  been 
at  work  ever  since  she  was  fourteen  years  old. 
For  nearly  four  years  before  she  went  into  muni- 
tion making  she  had  worked  in  a  novelty  and  paper 
box  factory,  never  earning  more  than  $7.50  a 

77 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

week.  During  the  year  in  which  she  had  been  in 
the  shops  her  wages  had  increased  from  $7.85  to 
$10  a  week.  She  inspected  paper  shells,  an  occu- 
pation which  she  said  was  a  strain  for  girls  whose 
eyes  were  not  strong.  She  spoke  enthusiastically 
of  the  shops  and  said  that  the  foremen  were  espe- 
cially considerate  of  girls  whom  they  knew  to  be 
alone  and  dependent  on  themselves.  She  was 
boarding  with  a  friend  whom  she  had  known  for 
a  long  time  and  therefore  paid  only  $4.00  a  week 
for  board. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  some  of  these  workers 
should  have  been  able  to  live  on  a  lower  wage 
than  others.  On  the  whole,  however,  for  girls 
away  from  home,  $10  or  $11  seemed  to  be  neces- 
sary for  a  fair  standard,  unless  a  girl  lived  with 
friends  who  gave  her  board  and  lodging  at  less 
than  commercial  rates.  At  $13  saving  was  pos- 
sible. It  should  be  recalled  that  half  the  women 
workers  investigated  earned  less  than  $11. 

The  effect  of  rising  rents  and  overcrowding  on 
the  burden  of  poverty  in  Bridgeport  is  reflected  in 
the  annual  report  of  the  Board  of  Public  Charities 
for  1915-16. 

The  overcrowding  of  homes  has  been  the  outstanding 
feature  of  the  year's  events  in  Bridgeport.  The  effects 
of  this  condition  have  manifested  themselves  in  problems 
of  (a)  immorality  and  illegitimacy,  (b)  the  sheltering  of 
evicted  families  in  institutions  pending  adjustment,  (c) 
increased  hospital  care. 

The  abnormal  inflation  of  rent  values  caused  much 
misery.  It  was  formerly  possible  to  find  a  fair  rent  for 

78 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

$12.  Rents  sometimes  doubled  in  value  as  the  demand 
increased.  Wholesale  evictions  of  the  poor  followed. 
Families  were  broken  up.  Children  were  placed  in  insti- 
tutions. Attendant  upon  this  was  the  loss  of  home  ideals 
and  standards. 

The  report  of  the  city  physician  for  the  same 
year  gives  similar  testimony. 

Too  many  people  are  living  in  inadequate  homes,  sleep- 
ing spaces  being  limited,  houses  too  closely  built,  shutting 
out  light  and  air  and  resulting  in  poor  ventilation  and 
sanitation.  Basement  rooms  are  copious  breeders  of  state 
and  city  charges.  Landlords  rent  these  rooms  in  order 
to  make  real  estate  pay  and  care  little  for  the  general 
welfare  and  the  city's  health. 

Room  congestion  is  a  prolific  source  of  trouble.  Bear 
in  mind  that  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  tubercular  cases 
come  from  homes  and  rooming  houses  that  are  classed 
as  overcrowded.  Of  course,  poor  housing  and  overcrowd- 
ing are  not  being  set  forth  as  the  only  cause  of  tubercu- 
losis; nevertheless,  they  have  an  important  bearing  upon 
the  matter,  and  are  the  contributing  factors  that  we  can 
help  remove  and  control — and,  therefore,  are  subjects 
which  we  should  have  seriously  in  mind  with  a  definite  ob- 
jective viewpoint. 

To  accommodate  the  increasing  number  of  girls 
in  the  munition  plants,  three  large  buildings  of  the 
dormitory  type  were  started  by  the  Remington 
Arms-Union  Metallic  Cartridge  Company.  The 
plans  provided  for  excellent  construction  and  the 
buildings  have  a  commanding  site  overlooking  the 
city,  but  construction  was  greatly  delayed. 
Not  until  March  23,  1917,  was  the  first  of  these 

79 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

dormitories  opened  for  occupancy,  and  at  that 
time  work  was  still  to  be  done  before  the  full  quota 
of  127  girls  could  be  accommodated.  By  the  end 
of  May,  1917,  75  women  workers  were  living  in 
the  one  dormitory,  which  even  then  was  not  quite 
completed,  while  the  other  two  were  still  in  the 
hands  of  carpenters  and  plasterers.  The  build- 
ings are  three  stories  high,  of  fireproof  construc- 
tion and  attractive  appearance.  There  were  a 
large  number  of  double  rooms  for  which  each  of 
the  two  girls  who  occupied  them  paid  $2.00  a  week. 
Single  rooms  might  be  had  for  $3.00,  and  space  in 
an  open  dormitory  on  the  top  floor  for  $1.75  a 
week.  These  rates  included  light,  heat,  bed  linen, 
and  towels,  and  care  of  the  room.  Each  room  had 
a  built-in  wooden  wardrobe,  and  metal  lockers 
were  provided  in  the  open  dormitory.  The  rooms 
were  neatly  furnished  in  gray  "cottage"  furniture 
— a  chiffonier  with  mirror,  a  writing  table,  a 
chair,  and  a  couch  bed.  The  walls  were  untinted 
white  plaster,  which  gave  the  rooms  a  rather  bare 
look,  but  the  two  windows  which  were  found  in 
most  of  them  provided  abundant  sunshine  and 
air.  Each  floor  had  two  lavatories,  each  equipped 
with  one  bath,  one  shower,  two  toilets  and  six 
wash  basins.  In  the  basement  was  a  cafeteria 
where  breakfast  and  dinner  were  served  at  mod- 
erate rates.  Lunch  would  be  "put  up"  for  those 
girls  who  wished  to  take  it  with  them  to  the  fac- 
tory. A  "fudge  kitchen"  on  the  second  floor, 
reading  and  reception  rooms  with  magazines  and 
Victrola  on  the  main  floor,  and  a  room  for  dancing 

80 


THE   WOMEN   AT   HOME 

in  the  basement  which  was  equipped  with  a  piano 
were  provided  for  recreation.  There  was  also  a 
laundry  in  the  basement  for  the  use  of  the  girls. 
The  efforts  of  this  one  company  as  early  as  1916, 
however,  were  seen  not  to  be  sufficient,  and  it  was 
clear  that  in  the  interest  of  public  health  some 
action  by  voluntary  associations  or  by  city  or  state 
would  be  needed. 


81 


CHAPTER  VII 
PROGRAMS   OF  CITY  AND  STATE 

THE  facts  of  this  investigation  show  what  may 
happen  as  the  result  of  a  rapid  expansion  of 
any  industry  in  any  community  at  any  time. 
When  a  national  or  an  international  crisis  brings 
the  need  and  the  incentive  for  maximum  produc- 
tion the  tendency  is  to  lower  the  standard  of  work- 
ing conditions,  in  forgetfulness  of  the  crucial  fact 
that  the  conservation  of  the  health  and  freedom 
of  the  workers  is  a  fundamental  necessity  for  the 
nation.  Even  the  desire  for  maximum  production 
cannot  be  fulfilled  if  the  workers'  strength  be  un- 
dermined. This  is  not  theory.  It  is  based  on  ob- 
servation and  experience  and  is  poignantly  illus- 
trated by  the  sobering  results  of  England's  experi- 
ence in  the  present  war.*  Night  work  for  women, 
long  hours  by  day,  fatigue  with  its  insidious  ef- 
fects on  the  powers  of  resistance  to  disease,  speed 
and  strain,  a  sudden  growth  in  population,  diffi- 
culties in  transportation,  inadequate  facilities  for 
recreation,  congestion  and  overcrowding  in  the 
homes  of  the  people,  with  their  inevitable  results 
in  disease  and  immorality,  lowered  standards  of 
living  with  rising  costs, — these  are  the  conditions 
from  which  Bridgeport  has  suffered.  Since  this 
investigation  was  completed  they  have  become,  not 
a  possible  future  local  problem  of  certain  indus- 
trial centers,  but  a  present  condition  of  conse- 


*  See  Part  II,  pp.  97-145. 

82 


CITY    AND    STATE   PROGRAMS 

quence  to  the  whole  nation.  Everywhere,  in  the 
papers,  in  the  legislatures,  in  workingmen's  bodies, 
and  in  welfare  associations  of  citizens  the  question 
is  being  discussed:  "How  can  we  maintain  maxi- 
mum production  at  the  minimum  human  and  social 
cost?" 

How  Bridgeport  as  a  city  has  met  its  new  in- 
dustrial and  civic  conditions  should,  therefore, 
be  set  down  as  a  practical  guide  for  other  com- 
munities. 

In  the  old  days,  under  the  old  order,  as  in  most 
American  towns,  Bridgeport  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers went  their  several  ways  intent  on  mak- 
ing and  selling  goods,  leaving  to  the  mayor  and 
the  board  of  aldermen  and  the  party  bosses  behind 
them  all  concern  for  the  housekeeping  of  the  city. 
But  the  new  and  unique  conditions  roused  a  new 
spirit.  The  merchants  and  manufacturers,  the 
educators  and  the  physicians,  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  civic  and  philanthropic  associations 
united  for  action.  They  got  expert  advice  and 
went  to  work.  They  found  that  they  had  to 
grapple  with  fundamentals.  It  was  like  build- 
ing the  city  over  again.  It  needed  sewers 
and  bridges.  The  citizens  needed  pavements  on 
which  to  walk,  cars  in  which  to  ride.  The  chil- 
dren needed  schools  and  parks.  Workers  needed 
houses  and  the  sick  better  hospital  care.  Money 
had  to  be  got  to  do  these  things.  The  first  step, 
therefore,  was  to  appropriate  funds.  In  April, 
1916,  a  proposition  providing  for  the  largest  bond 
issues  in  the  history  of  the  city  was  submitted  to 

83 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

the  voters  and  carried.    The  issues  provided  for 
were  as  follows: 

Purpose  Amount 

Pavements   $  500,000 

Schools   300,000 

Sewers    500,000 

Bridges 250,000 

Police  and  Fire  Departments 125,000 

Public  clinic 75,000 

Parks 275,000 

Street  extension 250,000 


Total  issue $2,275,000 

A  recreation  commission  was  appointed  which 
looked  beyond  the  enlargement  of  the  beautiful 
park  along  the  Sound  and  the  smaller  parks 
throughout  the  city  and  undertook  the  big  prob- 
lem of  all-the-year-round  recreation.  The  crowds 
of  young  men  and  women  who  loitered  along  the 
streets  when  the  working  day  was  done,  the  lines 
stretching  a  block  in  either  direction  waiting  to 
get  into  the  overtaxed  movies,  the  throngs  rush- 
ing for  cars  to  take  them  to  the  nearby  beaches, 
these  were  the  people  who  made  urgent  better 
recreational  opportunities  of  the  city.  The  com- 
mission obtained  expert  assistance,  securing  a 
representative  of  the  Playground  and  Recreation 
Association  of  America  to  survey  the  situation  in 
Bridgeport  and  to  give  advice. 

Behind  the  appointment  of  the  recreation  com- 
mission was  the  report  of  the  vice  commission, 

84 


CITY   AND    STATE   PROGRAMS 

which  had  laid  bare  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  un- 
derworld, and  had  strongly  urged  the  appointment 
of  a  body  to  provide  opportunities  for  healthful 
amusement  and  exercise. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1916  the  vital  question 
of  public  health  forced  itself  upon  the  attention 
of  the  city.  Cases  of  streptococcic  infection,  at- 
tributed to  the  milk  supply,  spread  alarm  through- 
out the  city,  and  brought  forth  determined  efforts 
to  locate  the  source  of  the  trouble  and  to  secure 
clean  milk.  Closely  upon  this  followed  the  dan- 
ger of  an  epidemic  of  infantile  paralysis,  which 
was  rife  in  New  York  City.  No  time  was  lost  in 
securing  the  services  of  an  expert.  Dr.  Abraham 
Sophian,  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute,  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  work  of  the  Board  of  Health  in 
the  summer  of  1916.  Protective  measures  were 
at  once  enforced  and  it  is  believed  that  the  prompt 
and  thorough  work  of  the  department  saved  the 
lives  of  many  children. 

Another  far-reaching  benefit  to  the  city  came 
from  the  general  clean-up  and  the  educational 
health  work  done  by  the  inspectors  and  visiting 
nurses  of  the  Board  of  Health.  The  daily  press 
of  those  weeks  reflected  the  citizens'  growing  ap- 
preciation of  the  need  of  adequate  protection  of 
the  public  health,  and  the  sum  which  was  voted  in 
April,  1916,  for  public  clinics  is  now  considered 
inadequate  for  the  up-to-date  out-service  work 
which  is  planned  to  supplement  hospital  care. 

Nothing  better  illustrates  the  new  spirit  that 
captured  the  city  in  1916  than  the  Minerva-like 

85 


WOMEN   AS    MUNITION   MAKERS 

appearance  of  its  life-sized  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
which  undertook  a  program  for  providing  houses 
in  which  working  people  could  live  comfortably, 
terminal  and  track  facilities  to  accommodate  the 
enormously  increased  freight  traffic,  and  street  ex- 
tensions for  the  crowded  thoroughfares. 

The  housing  campaign  was  the  most  vigorous 
undertaking  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Its 
members  believed  that  the  filling  of  this  need  was 
the  key  to  the  continued  prosperity  of  Bridgeport. 
Long  before  the  influx  of  labor  and  the  demand 
for  house-room  had  disclosed  its  insufficient  re- 
sources, it  had  become  clear  that  the  city  was  not 
immune  from  the  common  housing  problems  of 
our  eastern  manufacturing  centers.  The  Bridge- 
port Housing  Association  had  been  formed  in  1914 
to  make  a  serious  study  of  the  situation  and  to  set 
its  dangers  before  the  eyes  of  the  public.  Under 
the  auspices  of  the  Association,  Miss  Udetta  D. 
Brown  made  a  study  of  three  districts  of  the  city 
in  March,  April,  and  May,  1914,  the  results  of 
which  were  published  by  the  Association  in  a  small 
volume  entitled  A  Brief  Survey  of  Housing  Con- 
ditions in  Bridgeport,  Connecticut.  The  report 
dealt  mainly  with  construction,  fire  protection, 
sanitation  and  maintenance,  and  concluded  with 
the  recommendations  that  such  a  service  as  that 
of  visiting  housekeeper  should  be  provided,  that 
vacant  yards  should  be  transformed  into  gardens, 
and  that  a  housing  company  should  undertake  the 
building  of  good  small  houses.  In  addition  it  rec- 
ommended that  the  city  should  require  the  record- 

86 


CITY    AND    STATE    PROGRAMS 

ing  of  vaults  and  cesspools,  collect  ashes  and  rub- 
bish, extend  the  sewers,  provide  additional  inspec- 
tors, establish  a  city  code,  and  strengthen  existing 
provisions. 

Largely  as  a  result  of  this  investigation  and  of 
the  continued  activities  of  the  Bridgeport  Housing 
Association  in  carrying  on  a  publicity  campaign, 
a  new  code  was  adopted  in  the  spring  of  1915, 
containing  an  important  provision  aimed  at  the 
common  three-decker  tenements.  The  restriction 
was  as  follows: 

No  frame  building  shall  be  hereafter  erected  or  altered 
over  two  stories  in  height,  or  to  be  occupied  by  more  than 
four  families.  But  nothing  herein  shall  be  taken  to  pre- 
vent the  construction  of  blocks  of  frame  buildings  sep- 
arated by  fire  walls  as  specified  in  this  Code.* 

This  section  has  since  been  modified  to  permit 
raising  frame  buildings  on  a  brick  foundation,  by 
adding  the  following  provision : 

Nor  shall  this  ordinance  be  construed  to  prevent  the 
raising  of  any  two-story  frame  building  heretofore  erected 
by  constructing  thereunder  a  first  story  of  brick  when 
the  proposed  plan  of  alteration  complies  in  all  other  re- 
spects with  the  ordinance  of  this  city  and  will  not  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Board  of  Building  Commissioners,  if  caj- 
ried  out,  endanger  the  public  safety;  and  provided  that 
in  no  case  shall  the  first  story  in  any  building  so  altered 
be  used  for  dwelling  purposes. f 

As  already  described,  the  demand  for  labor  in 

*Building  Code  of  the  City  of  Bridgeport,  Chapter  XIII, 
Section  233. 

fAmendment  of  March  20,  1916. 
87 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

1915  gave  a  different  aspect  to  the  housing  situa- 
tion. Even  had  the  extensive  system  of  company 
houses  started  by  the  Remington  Arms-Union 
Metallic  Cartridge  Company  been  completed  the 
whole  number  would  have  been  only  a  fraction  of 
that  required. 

When  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  undertook  its 
housing  campaign  in  1916,  it  sent  representatives 
to  study  housing  projects  in  other  cities,  and 
charged  them  to  distinguish  paying  investments 
from  the  "fancy"  experiments  of  semi-philan- 
thropic agencies.  Bridgeport  meant  to  conduct 
her  municipal  business  efficiently  and  in  a  busi- 
ness-like way.  The  services  of  Mr.  John  Nolen, 
city  planner,  were  secured,  and  the  housing  com- 
mittee of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  proceeded  to 
act  on  the  recommendations  given  in  the  report 
on  local  housing  conditions  prepared  by  him,  and 
submitted  in  August,  1916. 

Mr.  Nolen  stated  that  the  situation  in  Bridge- 
port was  "desperate"  and  recommended  the  organ- 
ization of  a  house  building  company  as  "the  only 
good  solution  of  the  problem."  The  Bridgeport 
Housing  Company  was  formed,  capitalized  at 
$1,000,000  and  backed  by  several  of  the  most  prom- 
inent and  public-spirited  citizens  in  the  city.  The 
plans  called  for  houses  to  accommodate  1,000 
families,  with  rents  ranging  from  $15  to  $25  a 
month. 

Bridgeport's  awakening  had  found  its  way  into 
advertisements  which  had  appeared  during  the 
spring  in  the  papers  in  the  name  of  the  Build  for 

88 


CITY   AND    STATE   PROGRAMS 

Bridgeport  Movement.    A  number  of  the  exhorta- 
tions follow: 

GET-TOGETHER  WEEK 

We  are  waking  up  in  Bridgeport.  Some  of  us  are  a 
little  dazzled  by  seeing  what  was  before  our  eyes  all  the 
time. 

A  lot  of  us  are  asleep,  yet  a  sort  of  restless,  active, 
hypnotic  sleep,  caused  by  keeping  our  eyes  fixed  on  the 
next  dollar  in  front  of  us. 

Those  who  are  awake  are  looking  ahead  to  many  more 
dollars  than  are  now  in  sight,  a  steady  secure  stream 
of  them  made  permanent  by  a  stable  prosperity  governed 
by  intelligence,  by  fair  play,  by  honest  work. 

We  are  not  going  to  have  this  gambler's  prosperity 
handed  to  us  on  a  silver  platter  indefinitely.  And  we  can't 
club  it  out  of  each  other,  when  there  isn't  enough  to  go 
round,  even  if  we  are  silly  enough  to  try  it.  ... 

Remember  always  that  the  value  of  a  dollar  isn't  meas- 
ured by  the  figure  1  with  a  sign  before  it.  Its  measure  is 
what  you  can  get  for  it,  the  work  you  can  make  it  do  for 
you. 

The  biggest  work  a  dollar  can  do  for  you  just  now  is  to 
build  homes  that  will  pay. 

It  is  going  to  take  many  dollars — all  we  can  spare. 

Big  men  in  Bridgeport  are  giving  their  brains  and 
knowledge  to  the  problem,  and  they  will  lend  their  money. 

They  can't  do  it  all.  It  isn't  fair  to  Bridgeport  nor  to 
us  to  let  them  do  it  all.  It's  part  of  our  job. 

All  of  us  must  join  in  and  DO  IT  NOW. 

By  this  time  we  all  know  where  we  stand;  if  we  have 
two  good  feet  and  a  head  of  our  own  we  can  balance  on 
top  of  them. 


89 


WOMEN    AS    MUNITION    MAKERS 

Let's  agree  right  now  to  go  into  partnership  with  our 
own  town  and  work  like  honest,  loyal  partners. 

BE  FOR  BRIDGEPORT 

As  to  the  Bridgeport  Housing  Company,  it  was 
announced  that  the  methods  which  it  would  em- 
ploy in  its  operations  were : 

1.  Scientific   planning   along   advanced   lines, 
which  should  determine  the  character  and  arrange- 
ment of  roads  and  houses,  and  thereby  secure  the 
best  and  cheapest  results. 

2.  Wholesale  operations  and  efficient  manage- 
ment, thereby  effecting  economies  in  construction. 

3.  The  use  of  durable  materials,  thereby  sav- 
ing the  serious  depreciation  in  cheap  frame  dwell- 
ings. 

4.  Limiting   the   number  of  houses  per  acre, 
thereby  avoiding  the  evils  of  overcrowding. 

5.  Providing    for    community    buildings    and 
playgrounds,  thereby  promoting  the  social  life  of 
the  neighborhood. 

6.  Eliminating  excessive  profits,  the  earnings 
above  6  per  cent  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  and  de- 
velopment of  the  property. 

7.  Distributing  payments  for  a  home  over  a 
period  of  years,  thereby  bringing  it  within  the 
reach  of  all  who  desire  to  improve  their  home  con- 
ditions. 

8.  Assisting  the  workingman  to  own  his  home 
by  providing  a  financial  scheme  of  small  regular 
payments  within  the  limits  of  his  wages. 

Bridgeport  has  had  good  reason  to  be  proud  of 
90 


CITY   AND    STATE   PROGRAMS 

her  accomplishments.  Faced  with  emergencies 
which  taxed  her  resources  beyond  their  limits,  she 
set  herself  vigorously  and  persistently  to  her  tasks. 
The  newly  self-conscious  city  saw  that  her  future 
growth  should  be  through  ordered  progress.  She 
has  formed  the  habit  of  securing  expert  advice. 
She  has  already  begun  to  reach  higher  standards 
of  public  health,  of  schools,  of  recreation,  and  of 
housing. 

Accomplishment  of  these  civic  tasks,  excellent 
as  they  are,  does  not,  however,  cover  all  that 
Bridgeport  must  yet  do  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity. Daily  living  outside  the  factory  may  be 
made  richer  and  happier  and  more  healthful  by 
these  civic  activities,  but  the  improvement  in  in- 
dustrial conditions  has  not  been  part  of  the  pro- 
gram of  the  city.  Women  still  work  at  night,  a 
lamentable  reversion,  and  protection  against  acci- 
dent and  industrial  diseases  in  munition  shops  is 
still  inadequate,  as  is  the  amount  of  compensation 
for  disability  due  to  injuries.  Connecticut  has 
many  statutes  regulating  industry,  but  this  study 
shows  that  they  have  been  of  little  avail  in  con- 
trolling working  conditions  in  the  munition  fac- 
tories, and  that  both  the  provisions  of  the  law  and 
their  enforcement  should  be  strengthened. 

Frequent  reference  has  been  made  in  these 
pages  to  the  experience  of  England  in  discovering 
that  satisfactory  production  depended  upon  rea- 
sonably short  hours,  one  day  of  rest  in  seven,  and 
good  working  conditions  in  the  plant.  In  the  fol- 
lowing section  the  results  of  these  investigations 

91 


WOMEN   AS   MUNITION   MAKERS 

by  the  British  Ministry  of  Munitions  are  summa- 
rized. Their  findings,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  facts  discovered  in  Bridgeport  before  the  war 
began,  show  that  it  has  now  become  a  matter  of 
urgent,  national  need  to  safeguard  conditions  of 
work  not  only  in  the  munition  industry,  but  in  all 
occupations  essential  to  the  life  of  the  nation. 


92 


if. 


93 


MUNITION    WORKERS    IN 
ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 

A  SUMMARY  OF  REPORTS 
ISSUED  BY  THE  BRITISH 
MINISTRY  OF  MUNITIONS 


BY  HENRIETTE  R.  WALTER 


MUNITION  WORKERS  IN  ENGLAND 

OUT  of  the  exigeiicies  of  the  great  war  there 
have  developed  in  England  striking  indus- 
trial problems.  After  nearly  a  year  of  waste- 
ful production  that  exhausted  men  and  machinery, 
government  officials  realized  that  instead  of 
"sprinting  as  if  for  a  short  race,  the  course  would 
be  a  long  one" ;  and  that  the  labor  power  of  the  na- 
tion should  be  as  zealously  safeguarded  as  its  mili- 
tary strength.  The  futility  of  helter-skelter  haste 
was  dramatically  brought  home  to  all  England  by 
the  famous  shell  shortage  in  the  spring  of  1915, 
for  which  Kitchener  was  blamed.  It  was  a  case  of 
the  situation's  running  away  with  those  who 
should  have  controlled  it.  The  sudden  call  for 
large  amounts  of  clothing,  munitions,  food,  and 
other  necessities  of  war  time,  had  taken  the  manu- 
facturers completely  by  surprise,  and  the  rush  to 
fill  orders  demoralized  industrial  conditions. 
Overtime  became  the  rule,  night  work  and  Sun- 
day work  were  common.  Trade  unions  saw  the 
gains  of  years  swept  away.  Nearly  a  year  was 
gone  before  the  government  assumed  responsi- 
bility for  organizing  the  huge  business  of  making 
war  supplies,  and  almost  another  year  was  re- 
quired to  complete  an  organization  which  was 
efficient. 

The  crux  of  the  situation  was  of  course  in  the 
munition  industry.  August,  1914,  found  the  na- 
tion without  enough  guns,  shells  and  other  war 

97 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

equipment  to  carry  on  its  great  military  opera- 
tions and  with  no  way  to  get  them  quickly  or  in 
large  volume.  In  response  to  the  unprecedented 
demand  for  these  materials  had  come  an  imme- 
diate expansion  of  the  industry,  which  soon  ex- 
hausted the  supply  of  skilled  men  and  forced 
employers  to  recruit  their  workers  from  the  ranks 
of  the  unskilled,  both  men  and  women.  Stimu- 
lated by  the  exhortations  of  the  press  and  of  cab- 
inet officers  and  by  the  public  sentiment  generally, 
the  expansion  proceeded,  but  without  effective 
organization  or  control  until  the  spring  of  1915. 
In  the  meantime  the  problem  in  England  had 
changed  during  the  last  six  months  of  1914  from 
a  serious  unemployment  situation  in  July  and  Au- 
gust to  a  definite  shortage  of  labor  in  December. 
Early  in  1915  a  campaign  was  planned  to  recruit 
workers,  and  conferences  were  urged  to  settle  the 
grievances  of  those  already  at  work.  In  Febru- 
ary a  committee  was  appointed  to  deal  with  the 
disputes  constantly  arising.  In  March  the  Board 
of  Trade  planned  a  mobilization  of  women  to  do 
the  work  of  men  who  had  been  called  to  the  front, 
which  brought  immediate  response.  In  that  same 
month  Lloyd  George,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, effected  a  truce  with  the  trade  unions 
which  should  last  through  the  war,  and  secured 
for  the  government,  through  the  passage  of  the 
Defense  of  the  Realm  Act,  the  right  to  comman- 
deer any  factory  and  turn  it  over  to  the  produc- 
tion of  war  munitions.  Finally,  in  April,  after 
eight  and  a  half  months  of  war,  it  was  announced 

98 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

that  Lloyd  George  would  head  a  board  "to  organ- 
ize the  national  output  of  munitions  of  war," 
and  about  a  month  later,  at  the  time  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  Coalition  Cabinet  in  May,  1915,  a 
Ministry  of  Munitions  was  created,  with  Lloyd 
George  as  its  chief. 

This  step  gained,  a  program  of  action  was  de- 
cided upon.  A  munition  bureau  was  organized; 
all  factories  making  war  material  were  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  government ;  skilled  work- 
men at  the  front  were  recalled  to  work  in  muni- 
tion plants ;  men  in  the  colonies  and  in  the  United 
States,  experienced  in  the  making  of  munitions, 
were  offered  free  transportation  to  England;  a 
suspension  of  union  rules  was  brought  about,  and 
finally,  in  July,  1915,  the  passage  of  the  Munitions 
of  War  Act  effected.  This  bill  prohibited  strikes 
and  lockouts  in  war  industries,  substituted  com- 
pulsory arbitration,  and  suspended  all  trade  union 
rules  calculated  to  hamper  production.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  a  concession  to  labor  in  recognition 
of  the  sacrifices  it  was  making,  the  profits  of 
employers  were  limited,  and  amounts  in  excess  re- 
verted to  the  national  treasury.  Provision  was 
also  made  under  the  act  for  the  recruiting  by  the 
trade  unions  of  a  voluntary  army  of  workmen 
from  among  their  members  who  would  sign  agree- 
ments to  go  to  work  wherever  their  labor  was 
needed.  The  existing  local  munition  committees 
were  transformed  into  labor  courts,  with  power 
to  fine  individual  workmen  for  "slacking,"  for  in- 
fraction of  agreements  signed  by  them  as  mem- 

99 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN    ENGLAND 

bers  of  the  voluntary  army  of  workmen,  and  for 
any  offenses  "tending  to  restrict  production,"  and 
with  the  further  power  to  make  decisions  in  re- 
gard to  changes  in  existing  wage  rates. 

By  this  time  workers  on  munitions  saw  them- 
selves stripped  of  all  rights  and  safeguards  that 
had  been  theirs  in  time  of  peace.  Confusion 
reigned  in  the  industry.  In  the  first  burst  of  pa- 
triotic fervor,  everything  had  been  sacrificed  to 
speed.  Labor  laws  had  broken  down;  excessive 
hours  of  work  prevailed.  Thousands  of  women, 
many  of  them  totally  unaccustomed  to  factory 
work,  had  taken  up  the  tasks  of  the  men  who  were 
fighting.  Employers,  taking  advantage  of  the  fine 
spirit  in  which  the  women  offered  their  labor  to 
the  nation,  were  in  many  cases  paying  very  low 
wages.  Labor  unions  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
setting  aside  of  their  rules,  and  especially  with  the 
so-called  "dilution"  of  labor.  The  country  fairly 
seethed  with  threatened  and  active  labor  disturb- 
ances. 

The  Munitions  Act  seemed  to  aggravate  rather 
than  to  appease  this  dissatisfaction.  The  muni- 
tion courts,  especially,  appeared  to  antagonize  the 
trade  unionist,  because  of  biased  administration 
of  the  provisions  of  the  Act.  On  account  of  the 
power  of  employers  to  refuse  discharge  certificates 
to  their  employes,  workers  could  be  kept  wageless 
and  idle  for  weeks  at  a  time,  or  be  forced  to  ac- 
cept wages  far  below  the  standard  rates,  or  be 
compelled  to  work  excessive  overtime,  at  night  or 
on  Sunday,  and  without  extra  remuneration.  These 

100 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN    ENGLAND 

and  other  arbitrary  powers  the  munition  manu- 
facturers were  permitted  to  exercise  without  re- 
straint by  tribunals  made  up,  as  The  New  States- 
man put  it,  of  "persons  who  seem  to  regard  it  as 
a  patriotic  duty  to  refuse  to  listen  to  the  work- 
man's 'excuses/  and  to  inflict  summary  and  ex- 
emplary punishment  in  every  case  brought  before 
them."*  The  London  Times  admitted  that  the 
Act  had  occasioned  some  serious  friction  in  im- 
portant munition  areas  because  of  certain  details 
of  administration.  The  composition  of  the  trib- 
unals, the  lack  of  uniformity  in  wages  of  women 
and  unskilled  men  in  government  factories  and  in 
"controlled"  establishments,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  the  leaving  certificate  system  were  the  "de- 
tails" which  had  aroused  the  resentment  of  the 
workers.  The  government,  however,  and  the 
middle  and  upper  classes  failed  to  understand  the 
nature  of  Labor's  grievance  and  considered  it  only 
a  petty  disloyalty  which  made  workers  rebel  at 
personal  injustice  in  a  time  of  national  crisis. 
The  Munitions  Act  thus  failed  to  accomplish 
its  main  purpose,  namely,  the  recruiting  and  hold- 
ing of  workers  in  sufficient  numbers  to  insure  an 
adequate  supply  of  munitions.  Moreover,  dis- 
satisfaction does  not  tend  to  increase  output.  The 
shortsightedness  of  a  policy  which  permitted 
workers  to  be  worn  out  by  exhausting  conditions, 
especially  at  a  time  when  they  could  not  be  readily 
replaced,  was  brought  home  anew  to  government 
officials.  They  realized  then,  too,  a  thing  which 


*  The  New  Statesman,  November  6,  1915,  p.  99. 
101 


MUNITION    WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

was  not  evident  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
conflict — that  the  war  would  not  be  over  in  a 
month  or  a  year,  and  that  the  health  of  the  work- 
ers must  be  conserved  if  production  was  to  be 
maintained  over  a  long  period. 

The  realization  of  these  facts  on  the  part  of 
those  entrusted  with  the  task  of  supplying  arms 
and  ammunition  for  the  British  forces  led  to  the 
appointment,  in  September,  1915,  of  a  committee 
under  the  Ministry  of  Munitions,  called  the 
Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee,  "to  con- 
sider and  advise  on  questions  of  industrial  fatigue, 
hours  of  labor,  and  other  matters  affecting  the 
physical  health  and  physical  efficiency  of  workers 
in  munition  factories  and  workshops."  This 
Committee  proceeded,  under  the  chairmanship  of 
Sir  George  Newman,  Chief  Medical  Inspector  for 
the  Board  of  Education,  and  with  a  membership* 
well  qualified  for  its  duties,  to  inquire  into  the 
actual  conditions  then  prevailing,  with  a  view  to 
making  recommendations  which  would  result  not 
only  in  greater  comfort  for  workers,  but  also  in 
increased  production  by  a  more  physically  fit  and 
better  satisfied  labor  force.  The  findings  of  the 
Committee  have  been  embodied  in  a  series  of 


*  Sir  George  Newman,  M.  D.  (Chairman),  Sir  Thomas  Bar- 
low, Bart.,  K.  C.  V.  O.,  F.  R.  S.,  G.  Bellhouse,  Factory  De- 
partment, Home  Office,  Professor  A.  E.  Boycott,  M.  D., 
F.  R.  S.,  J.  R.  Clynes,  M.  P.,  E.  L.  Collis,  M.  B.,  Factory  De- 
partment, Home  Office,  W.  M.  Fletcher,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S., 
Secretary  of  Medical  Research  Committee,  Leonard  E.  Hill, 
M.  B.,  F.  R.  S.,  Samuel  Osborn,  J.  P.,  Miss  R.  E.  Squire, 
Factory  Department,  Home  Office,  Mrs.  H.  J.  Tennant,  E.  H. 
Pelham  (Secretary). 

102 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

memoranda  and  reports,  submitted  in  November 
and  December,  1915,  in  January,  July,  August, 
and  October,  1916,  and  in  February,  1917.  The 
subjects  treated  may  be  grouped,  for  considera- 
tion here,  under  five  main  heads:  (1)  hours  of 
labor;  (2)  health  and  hygiene;  (3)  general  wel- 
fare provision;  (4)  employment  of  women;  and 
(5)  juvenile  employment. 

HOURS  OF  LABOR 

Under  pressure  of  the  need  to  increase  produc- 
tion beyond  any  conception  of  past  experience,  the 
first  established  principle  of  working  conditions 
to  give  way  was,  naturally  enough,  the  restriction 
of  hours.  This  was  the  problem,  also,  which  first 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Health  of  Munition 
Workers  Committee.*  The  work  of  the  Com- 
mittee in  this  field  covered  the  questions  of  Sun- 
day labor,  overtime,  night  work,  rest  periods,  and 
holidays,  as  well  as  special  study  of  the  relation 
of  output  to  hours  of  work.  The  standards  set 
forth  in  their  recommendations  do  not  represent 
the  ideals  of  the  Committee,  but  are  especially 
adapted  to  the  exceptional  emergency,  and  are 
based  on  the  expectation  that  the  war  will  be  of 
long  duration. 

Sunday  Labor:  A  memorandum  on  Sunday 
labor  was  presented  soon  after  the  appointment 
of  the  Committee,  as  an  interim  report,  the  matter 


*  Three  memoranda  are  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject: No.  1,  Sunday  Labour,  November,  1915;  No.  5,  Hours  of 
Work,  January,  1916 ;  No.  12,  Statistical  Information  Concern- 
ing Output  in  Relation  to  Hours  of  Work,  July,  1916. 

103 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

being  deemed  of  such  urgent  importance  that  it 
was  thought  desirable  not  to  delay  its  discussion 
until  they  were  in  a  position  "to  deal  with  other 
questions  falling  within  their  terms  of  reference." 
The  Committee  found,  strangely  enough,  the 
great  majority  of  employers  opposed  to  Sunday 
work.  They  were  beginning  to  realize  that  from 
the  administrative  end  it  imposed  too  severe  a 
strain  on  the  foremen,  who  were  difficult  to  re- 
place ;  and,  from  the  economic  standpoint  it  meant 
higher  wages  with  but  slight  increase  in  output 
and  irregular  attendance  on  other  days  of  the 
week.  They  felt,  also,  that  in  its  religious  and 
social  aspects  "the  seventh  day  as  a  period  of 
rest"  was  "good  for  mind  and  body."  In  spite  of 
this  attitude  on  the  part  of  employers,  however, 
Sunday  labor  had  been  widely  adopted,  partly  on 
account  of  the  heavy  demands  on  output  and  the 
necessity  of  taking  every  means  of  increasing 
production,  and  partly  on  account  of  the  desire  of 
workers  to  make  the  double,  or  at  least  increased, 
pay  which  was  given.  In  many  cases  the  hours  of 
labor  on  Sunday  were  considerably  shorter  than 
on  other  days,  but  there  were  still  a  number  of 
factories  where  they  were  as  long  as  on  other 
days,  if  not  longer,  as  in  cases  where  the  change 
from  a  twelve-hour  day  shift  to  a  twelve-hour 
night  shift  was  made  by  working  for  a  continuous 
period  of  eighteen  hours.  Permits  for  Sunday 
work  even  for  "protected  persons"  (i.  e.,  women 
and  young  persons  under  eighteen  years  of  age) 
had  been  issued  for  50  plants  to  cover  women, 

104 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

boys  and  girls,  and  for  30  more  to  cover  boys 
only.  These  permits  had  often  been  conditioned 
on  the  workers  being  employed  for  short  hours 
on  Sunday,  or  on  having  time  off  on  Saturday. 
According  to  the  Chief  Factory  Inspector's  report 
for  the  early  period  of  the  war,*  many  employers 
assumed  that  the  labor  laws  were  not  binding  in 
the  emergency,  and  disregarded  their  restrictions 
without  applying  for  permits.  For  men,  more- 
over, such  permits  were  not  required,  and  their 
employment  on  Sunday  was  consequently  more 
widespread  than  that  of  "protected  persons." 

Statistics  on  the  output  from  Sunday  labor  were 
not  available  at  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the 
Committee's  first  report.  One  important  firm, 
however,  found  that  by  instituting  a  working  week 
of  six  rather  than  seven  days,  the  average  weekly 
hours,  instead  of  being  diminished,  actually  in- 
creased from  59i  to  60,  indicating  an  improve- 
ment in  attendance  on  the  six  work  days.  More- 
over, the  hourly  output  had  increased.  Many 
other  employers  conceded  that  seven  days'  labor 
produced  only  six  days'  output,  and  that  reduc- 
tions in  Sunday  work  had  not  resulted  in  any  ap- 
preciable decrease  in  product.  Even  less  observ- 
ant managers  had  begun  to  detect  the  effect  of 
strain  on  the  workers.  Employers  were  realizing 
the  necessity  of  conserving  the  workers'  strength 
in  order  to  maintain  the  maximum  output  over  a 


*  Great  Britain.  Home  Office.  Annual  Report  of  the  Chief 
Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops  for  the  year  1914. 
London,  1915. 

105 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

longer  period  than  had  been  at  first  estimated. 
The  workers,  too,  commenced  to  feel  the  need  of 
more  rest.  The  strain  was  beginning  to  tell,  espe- 
cially on  those  who  in  ordinary  times  would  have 
absented  themselves  from  work  on  account  of  ill 
health  but  who  now  stuck  to  their  jobs.  The 
higher  rate  of  pay  for  Sunday  work  had  at  first 
made  it  popular,  but  the  great  majority  of  workers 
were  now  disposed  to  forego  the  extra  money  for 
the  sake  of  the  needed  rest. 

The  conclusion  reached  by  the  Committee  in 
regard  to  seven-day  work  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows : 

"The  evidence  before  the  Committee  has  led 
them  strongly  to  hold  that  if  the  maximum  out- 
put is  to  be  secured  and  maintained  for  any  length 
of  time,  a  weekly  period  of  rest  must  be  allowed. 
Except  for  quite  short  periods,  continuous  work 
...  is  a  profound  mistake  and  does  not  pay  .  .  . 
output  is  not  increased.  On  economic  and  social 
grounds  alike  this  weekly  period  of  rest  is  best 
provided  on  Sunday."  After  remarking  that  the 
need  for  this  relief  was  greater  for  "protected" 
persons  than  for  adult  males,  and  for  men  on 
overtime  than  for  those  on  double  shift,  the  Com- 
mittee nevertheless  recommended  "that  the  dis- 
continuance of  Sunday  labor  should  be  of  univer- 
sal application  and  should  extend  to  all  classes  of 
workers."  Pending  a  general  discontinuance  of 
Sunday  work,  if  immediate  change  was  found  diffi- 
cult, they  suggested  ways  of  improvement,  such 
as  reducing  Sunday  hours,  giving  all  workers  al- 

106 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

ternate  Sundays  off,  omitting  one  or  two  shifts  on 
Sunday  in  cases  of  the  triple-shift  system,  or  at 
least  discontinuing  the  eighteen-hour  work  period 
in  changing  from  day  to  night  shifts.  It  was  fur- 
ther noted  that  ' 'foremen  and  the  higher  manage- 
ment even  more  certainly  [than  the  workers]  re- 
quire definite  periods  of  rest,"  on  account  both  of 
their  heavy  burden  of  responsibility  and  of  the 
difficulty  of  replacing  them.  The  Committee 
finally  stated  that  in  order  to  secure  any  large 
measure  of  reform,  definite  orders  to  restrict  Sun- 
day work  might  be  necessary. 

Overtime :  Overtime,  by  which  is  meant  a  length- 
ening of  the  normal  hours  of  work,  was  the  most 
commonly  used  and  most  abused  expedient 
for  attempting  to  increase  production,  especially 
in  case  of  skilled  men  who  were  difficult  to  recruit 
in  large  numbers.  During  the  first  year  of  the 
war  even  a  week  of  ninety  hours  was  not  uncom- 
mon. A  tendency  to  reduce  hours  of  work  was 
apparent,  however,  as  early  as  January,  1916, 
when  the  recommendations  of  the  committee  were 
submitted.  Still,  excessive  overtime  had  by  no 
means  disappeared,  since  seventy-  and  eighty-hour 
weeks  were  frequently  encountered.  While  no 
serious  breakdown  among  the  workers  was  then 
apparent,  the  Committee  remarked  that  "it  is  self- 
evident  that  men  cannot  work  continually  fifteen 
hours  a  day  with  good  effect,"  and  "general  state- 
ments indicative  of  fatigue  have  been  received," 
especially  in  regard  to  women  and  older  men. 
Moreover,  the  question  was  not  whether  the 

107 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

workers  had  been  able  to  withstand  the  strain 
up  to  that  time,  but  whether  they  could  continue 
to  do  so  over  a  long  period.  The  Committee  rec- 
ognized that  overtime  could  not  be  altogether  abol- 
ished during  the  crisis,  but  felt  it  was  possible 
to  compromise  on  a  course  midway  between  the 
standards  of  peace  and  the  extremes  to  which  a 
shortsighted  policy  had  driven  employers  and 
workers.  In  general  they  suggested  that  double 
or  triple  shifts  be  substituted  wherever  possible 
for  overtime. 

Intensive  medical  studies*  of  both  men  and 
women  workers  carried  on  by  the  Committee  from 
December,  1915  to  August,  1916  supported  their 
first  impressions  of  the  situation.  Men  employed 
at  heavy  work  were  found  to  be  working  as  much 
as  108  hours  a  week;  boys  under  eighteen  in 
some  cases  were  averaging  over  80  hours  and  in 
some  weeks  had  worked  90  and  even  100 
hours ;  some  of  the  women  and  girls  examined  had 
a  regular  seventy-seven-hour  week.  These  workers, 
and  even  those  whose  hours  were  not  quite  so  ex- 
cessive, gave  evidence,  according  to  the  investiga- 
tors, of  exhaustion  and  fatigue.  "Pale,  anaemic,  dull 
and  expressionless"  are  the  adjectives  used  to  de- 
scribe many  of  the  boys  who  were  examined,  for 
it  was  among  these  young  workers  that  the  most 
serious  effects  on  health  were  found.  On  the  other 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Interim  Report. 
Industrial  Efficiency  and  Fatigue.  Part  II.  Medical  Studies. 
London,  February,  1917. 

108 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

hand,  the  workers  on  eight-hour  shifts  showed 
a  marked  superiority  in  health,  in  general 
appearance,  and  in  efficiency.  It  was  found  that 
"the  proportion  of  physically  unfit  increased  with 
the  length  of  hours  of  work."  Though  the  investi- 
gators stated  that  the  amount  of  fatigue  was  less 
than  they  had  anticipated  under  the  abnormal 
conditions,  they  still  felt  that  the  effects  of  ex- 
cessive overtime  were  so  serious  that  an  actual 
shortage  of  labor  would  result  unless  hours  should 
be  limited  in  the  immediate  future. 

For  adult  males  the  Committee  recommended  a 
maximum  working  week  of  sixty-five  hours,  in- 
cluding all  overtime;  a  concentration  of  overtime 
on  three  or  four  days  of  the  week  which  should 
preferably  be  not  consecutive,  and  a  discontinu- 
ance of  working  from  Friday  morning  all  through 
Friday  night  and  until  Saturday  noon.  For  women 
and  girls  they  recommended  that  continuous  work 
in  excess  of  sixty  hours  a  week  be  discontinued 
as  soon  as  practicable,  since  the  strain  of  excessive 
hours  is  without  doubt  even  more  serious  for  them 
than  for  men.  The  need  for  overtime  among 
women,  moreover,  is  not  so  pressing,  because  of  a 
large  reserve  of  female  labor.  In  regard  to  boys 
who  are  used  so  widely  to  assist  men,  the  Com- 
mittee recommended,  "though  with  great  hesita- 
tion," that  they  be  permitted  the  same  maximum 
hours  as  men,  but  that  substantial  relief  be  pro- 
vided at  week-ends  and  that  those  under  sixteen 
should  not  be  made  to  work  more  than  sixty  hours. 

109 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

Increased  Production  with  Shorter  Hours:       A 

special  study,*  published  nearly  eight  months  after 
the  first  recommendations  on  hours,  supplemented 
the  more  general  observations,  and  provided  a 
statistical  basis  for  the  conclusions  of  the  Com- 
mittee regarding  the  relation  of  working  hours 
to  volume  of  production.  In  several  large  muni- 
tion plants  the  output  of  different  groups  of 
workers  had  been  followed  over  periods  of  from 
eighteen  to  twenty-seven  weeks.  In  the  case  of 
100  women  engaged  in  turning  fuse  bodies,  which 
is  moderately  heavy  work,  a  reduction  in  the  aver- 
age hours  worked  per  week  from  68.2  to  59.7  was 
followed  by  a  23  per  cent  increase  in  hourly  out- 
put and  a  net  rise  in  weekly  output  of  8  per  cent. 
This  change  effected  also  a  decrease  of  two  hours 
in  the  amount  of  "broken"  time  per  week.  While 
chis  reduction  of  working  hours  to  sixty  a  week 
proved  so  successful  in  increasing  output,  a  fur- 
ther decrease  showed  that  an  equally  large  output 
could  be  maintained  in  fifty-six  hours  or  even  less. 
That  this  remarkable  rise  in  production  rate  was 
effected  without  any  change  in  machinery,  tools, 
raw  materials  or  nature  of  the  operation  strength- 
ens the  validity  of  the  findings.  A  possible  in- 
crease in  skill  among  the  operatives  during  the 
period  studied  was  another  element  carefully 
tested  and  eliminated  by  the  investigators. 
Maximum  Hours  for  War  Time :  Similar  studies 

*This  study  was  undertaken  for  the  Committee  by  Dr.  H. 
M.  Vernon.  The  results  were  published  in  July,  1916,  as 
Memorandum  No.  12,  Statistical  Information  Concerning  Out- 
put in  Relation  to  Hours  of  Work. 

110 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

were  made  of  other  groups  of  both  men  and 
women  employed  at  different  kinds  of  labor.  It 
was  found  that  the  output  of  those  engaged  in 
the  heaviest  type  of  work  was  the  most  favorably 
affected  by  a  reduction  in  hours.  Especially  was 
this  true  of  the  younger  workers  who  were  more 
sensitive  to  fatigue  than  adults.  A  group  of  boys 
ranging  in  age  from  fourteen  to  seventeen  years, 
who  were  sizing  base  plugs,  increased  their  hourly 
rate  by  42  per  cent  and  their  weekly  output  19 
per  cent  when  their  hours  were  reduced  from 
68.3  to  57.  Satisfactory  results  also  were  secured 
in  the  case  of  adult  men.  A  group  of  27  men 
sizing  fuses,  a  particularly  fatiguing  process, 
increased  their  hourly  rate  22  per  cent,  and  their 
total  weekly  output  10  per  cent  when  the  average 
hours  worked  were  decreased  from  61.5  to  55.4. 
The  general  conclusions  drawn  were  that  in  time 
of  stress,  for  men  engaged  in  very  heavy  work  the 
maximum  hours  from  the  point  of  view  of  high 
production  should  be  no  more  than  fifty-six  hours 
a  week ;  for  men  on  moderately  heavy  work,  sixty ; 
for  men  and  boys  on  light  work,  seventy;  for 
women  on  moderately  heavy  work,  fifty-six,  and 
for  women  on  light  work  about  sixty  hours.  It 
is  pointed  out,  however,  that  these  were  maximum 
hours,  that  they  imposed  a  great  strain  on  opera- 
tives— in  many  instances  one  too  great  to  be  borne 
— and  that,  in  fact,  they  applied  only  to  the  "fittest 
who  were  strong  enough  to  survive  in  the  strug- 
gle, not  to  the  general  mass  of  workers  of  all 
classes  who  tried  their  hand  at  munition  work." 

Ill 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

The  "best  hours  for  peace  times"  were  consider- 
ably shorter  in  each  case,  the  report  stated,  but 
whether  it  be  a  case  of  peace  or  war,  the  principle 
of  varying  the  hours  according  to  the  character 
of  the  work,  and  the  sex  and  age  of  the  workers 
should  be  observed.  The  investigators  also  advo- 
cated speeding  up  the  rate  of  production  in  order 
to  reduce  the  number  of  hours  actually  spent  in 
the  factories  and  the  institution  of  regular  rest 
pauses  to  break  the  long  five-hour  spells. 

Shifts  and  Night  Work:  In  order  to  run  the 
munition  plants  to  maximum  capacity,  multiple- 
shift  systems  had  been  widely  adopted.  Two  kinds 
of  these  were  found:  the  double  shift  of  twelve 
hours  each  and  the  three  eight-hour  shifts.  Men 
workers  were  almost  universally  on  the  double 
shift,  and  the  Committee  saw  no  reason  for 
change,  since  there  was  apparently  no  very  ill 
effect  and  the  supply  of  men  was  too  scant  to 
make  the  three-shift  plan  feasible.  Women  were 
employed  sometimes  on  the  twelve-hour  shift, 
sometimes  on  the  eight-hour  shift.  The  recom- 
mendation was  made  that  the  twelve-hour  shift  for 
women  be  abandoned  wherever  the  difficulties  of 
housing  and  transit  for  additional  workers  could 
be  overcome,  that  no  girls  under  eighteen  should 
work  at  night,  and  that  in  no  case  should  night 
hours  run  over  sixty  a  week.  In  the  case 
of  boys  again  it  did  not  seem  practicable  to 
regulate  their  hours  further,  but  it  was  urged  that 
night  work  be  restricted  to  those  over  sixteen,  and 
that  its  effect  on  individual  boys  be  carefully 

112 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

watched.  The  Committee,  to  clear  up  any  mis- 
apprehensions as  to  their  attitude  on  night  work 
go  on  record  as  not  considering  it  a  good  thing 
in  itself,  but  only  as  being  preferable  to  excessive 
overtime.  The  objections  which  they  set  forth 
are:  (1)  it  is  uneconomical,  because  of  the  higher 
wages  and  lower  output;  (2)  supervision  is  often 
unsatisfactory;  (3)  adequate  lighting  is  difficult; 
(4)  workers  cannot  secure  the  necessary  amount 
of  sleep  during  the  day;  and  (5)  digestion  is  de- 
ranged by  the  unwonted  meal  hours. 

There  was  considerable  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
the  Committee's  members  at  the  beginning  of  their 
work  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  continuous  and 
discontinuous  night  work.  Subsequently,  as  the 
result  of  careful  studies*  of  output  and  health 
under  the  two  systems,  which  were  undertaken 
for  the  Committee  during  1916  by  Dr.  H.  M.  Ver- 
non,  Prof.  Thomas  Loveday,  Mr.  P.  Sargant  Flor- 
ence and  others,  it  was  definitely  established  that 
weekly  alternation  of  day  and  night  shifts  is  pro- 
ductive of  better  output  and  better  timekeeping 
than  continuous  night  work.  The  Committee, 
therefore,  urge  that  both  for  men  and  for  women 
continuous  night  shifts  be  abandoned.  Incidental 
to  these  studies,  evidence  was  encountered  of 
larger  output  and  greater  efficiency  among  con- 
tinuous day  workers  than  among  continuous  night 
workers.  For  example,  in  the  case  department  of 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Interim  Report. 
Industrial  Efficiency  and  Fatigue.  Part  I,  pp.  26-40.  London, 
February,  1917. 

113 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

a  cartridge  factory  25  night  workers  during  an 
eleven-week  period  showed  an  inferiority  in  rate 
of  output  to  84  day  workers,  which  ranged  from 
13  to  21  per  cent. 

Rest  Periods  and  Holidays:  The  common  prac- 
tice in  regard  to  rest  and  meal  periods  on  the 
twelve-hour  shift  was  to  allow  half  an  hour  for 
breakfast  and  an  hour  for  dinner  if  the  shift  be- 
gan at  6  a.  m.,  or  only  an  hour  for  dinner  if  it 
began  at  7  or  8,  the  worker  being  supposed  in  this 
instance  to  have  breakfasted  before  coming  to 
work.  In  the  latter  case  the  Committee  recom- 
mended a  break  in  the  morning  for  tea,  especially 
as  many  workers  must  travel  such  long  distances 
to  reach  their  places  of  employment  that  break- 
fast is  taken  very  early  and  the  wait  until  dinner 
is  too  exhausting.  On  night  shifts  in  many  in- 
stances only  two  half-hour  periods  were  allowed. 
The  Committee  recommended  one  hour  and  one 
half-hour  break,  or  two  periods  of  three-quarters 
of  an  hour,  especially  for  women.  On  the  eight- 
hour  shift  it  was  customary  to  allow  half  an  hour 
for  meal  time,  and  this,  they  thought,  was  ade- 
quate. In  their  opinion,  also,  the  ordinary  fac- 
tory holidays  should  not  be  interfered  with,  as 
these  allowed  needed  recuperation  from  fatigue. 

HEALTH   AND   HYGIENE 

The  study  of  hours  of  labor  led  the  Newman 
Committee,  as  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers 
Committee  is  often  called,  inevitably  to  the  con- 
sideration of  particular  problems  of  health,  such 

114 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

as  fatigue  and  industrial  disease,  as  well  as  the 
allied  topics  of  work  accidents,  factory  sanitation, 
and  the  like.* 

Industrial  Fatigue:  The  Committee,  in  their 
study  of  industrial  fatigue,  went  carefully  into  its 
causation  and  its  signs  and  symptoms,  the  rhythms 
of  action  and  rest  and  their  relation  to  the  work- 
er's efficiency.  Running  through  the  entire  con- 
sideration of  this  subject  is  a  recognition  of  the 
relation  between  scientific  management  and  indus- 
trial fatigue.  The  achievements  of  Germany  and 
America  in  this  direction  are  pointed  to,  and  the 
Committee,  looking  into  the  future,  ventured  to 
hope  "that  the  study  of  industrial  fatigue  and  the 
science  of  management  based  upon  it,  which  is  now 
being  forced  into  notice  by  immediate  need,  may 
leave  lasting  results  to  benefit  the  industries  of  the 
country  during  the  succeeding  years  of  peace."t 
Fatigue  is  defined  as  "the  sum  of  the  results  of  ac- 
tivity which  show  themselves  in  a  diminished  ca- 
pacity for  doing  work,"  not  to  be  determined  in 
its  early  stages,  at  least,  by  the  subjective  sensa- 
tions of  the  worker,  but  by  such  objective  signs  as 
decreased  output,  spoiled  work,  accidents,  sick- 


*  Memoranda  on  these  subjects  are:  No.  7,  Industrial 
Fatigue  and  Its  Causes,  January,  1916;  No.  8,  Special  Indus- 
trial Diseases,  February,  1916 ;  No.  9,  Ventilation  and  Lighting 
of  Munition  Factories  and  Workshops,  January,  1916;  No.  10, 
Sickness  and  Injury,  January,  1916;  No.  14,  Washing  Facilities 
and  Baths,  August,  1916;  and  No.  15,  The  Effect  of  Industrial 
Conditions  Upon  Eyesight,  October,  1916. 

t  It  should  be  noted  that  scientific  management  as  alluded  to 
in  this  report  is  concerned  primarily  with  motion  study.  No 
mention  is  made  of  time  study  combined  with  motion  study. 

115 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

ness,  lost  time,  or  "staleness."  Of  these  tests  the 
most  direct  is  diminished  production,  and  meas- 
urements of  the  output  of  the  shop  and  the  indi- 
vidual worker  are  suggested  as  indices.  ' 'Slack- 
ing," which  has  been  charged  against  the  British 
workers  during  the  war,  the  Committee  believed 
to  have  been  discontinued  to  a  great  extent 
through  patriotic  incentive.  Moreover,  they  held 
that  some  deliberate  "slacking"  might  actually 
give  an  improved  output  by  sparing  wasteful  fa- 
tigue, and  go  even  farther  in  saying  that  "it  can- 
not in  such  circumstances  be  said  that  a  workman 
so  restraining  himself,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, is  doing  more  to  damage  the  output  on 
the  whole  than  the  employer  who  has  arranged 
overlong  hours  on  the  baseless  assumption  that 
long  hours  mean  high  output."  Evidence  is  pre- 
sented from  statements  of  employers  indicating 
that  there  was  slacking,  "often  quite  unconscious," 
in  the  twelve-hour  shift,  which  was  not  found  un- 
der the  three-shift  system,  and  that  without  this 
restraint  the  output  for  the  twelve  hours  would  be 
even  lower.  On  the  whole,  the  Committee  were 
of  the  opinion  that,  although  in  isolated  instances 
intelligent  precautions  against  fatigue  had  been 
taken,  munition  workers  in  general  had  been  al- 
lowed to  reach  a  state  of  reduced  efficiency  and 
lowered  health  which  might  have  been  avoided  had 
proper  attention  been  given  to  daily  and  weekly 
rests. 

An  exceedingly  valuable  scientific  study  of  in- 
dustrial fatigue  which  should  be  mentioned  in  con- 

116 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

nection  with  the  work  of  the  Health  of  Munition 
Workers  Committee  was  made,  not  by  this  Com- 
mittee, but  for  the  British  Home  Office,  by  Prof. 
A.  F.  Stanley  Kent,  and  published  in  two  reports.* 
The  first  of  these  reports  describes  the  methods 
used  in  working  out  physiological  tests  for  the 
presence  of  fatigue,  its  degree  and  the  worker's 
power  of  recovery.  The  second  presents  a  com- 
prehensive application  of  these  tests  to  workers 
in  seven  different  factories,  over  periods  ranging 
as  long  as  three  and  a  half  months,  together  with 
the  findings  based  on  the  results  of  these  experi- 
ments. The  most  extensive  studies  made  were 
in  a  surgical  dressings  factory  and  an  engineering 
plant,  both  subject  to  extreme  war  pressure.  Dr. 
Kent's  findings  all  support  the  recommendations 
of  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee  re- 
garding the  abolition  of  Sunday  labor,  reduction 
of  overtime,  rest  intervals,  and  the  like.  The  most 
important  evidence  for  a  country  at  war  was  that 
showing  the  effect  of  fatigue  and  overtime  on  pro- 
duction. It  is  shown  that  total  daily  output  may 
be  actually  diminished  by  the  introduction  of  over- 
time because  increased  fatigue  affects  the  produc- 
tion not  alone  of  the  actual  overtime  period,  but 
of  the  regular  working  hours  as  well.  One 
group  of  workers  made  an  absolute  increase  in 
output  of  over  5  per  cent,  as  a  result  of  shortening 
their  working  day  from  twelve  to  ten  hours.  Un- 

*  Interim  Report  on  an  Investigation  of  Industrial  Fatigue 
by  Physiological  Methods  (Cd.  8056),  August,  1915,  and  Sec- 
ond Interim  Report  on  an  Investigation  of  Industrial  Fatigue 
by  Physiological  Methods  (Cd.  8335),  August,  1916. 

117 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN    ENGLAND 

satisfactory  output  during  the  early  morning  pe- 
riod (6  to  8  a.  m.)  was  attributed  largely  to  lack 
of  rest,  food,  and  to  general  discomfort  in  home 
conditions,  due,  though  indirectly,  to  excessive 
hours  of  labor.  Professor  Loveday,  who  made  a 
special  investigation*  of  the  causes  of  broken  time 
for  the  Newman  Committee,  recommends  in  his 
conclusions  that  all  work  before  breakfast — a  cus- 
tom which  prevails  in  many  English  factories- 
should  be  abolished  since  it  gives  inferior  output, 
lowers  health,  and  leads  to  poor  attendance  at 
work. 

Sickness  Among  Workers:  The  two  factors 
of  sickness  and  injury  often  indicate  the  presence 
of  industrial  fatigue.  In  relation  to  both  of  these 
problems  the  Newman  Committee  formulated 
programs  for  prevention  and  treatment.f  After 
pointing  to  the  relation  between  bad  industrial 
conditions  and  ill  health,  the  Committee  urged  that 
employers  give  special  attention  to  guarding 
against  cramped  posture  at  work,  prolonged  or  ex- 
cessive muscular  strain,  poor  ventilation,  heating 
and  lighting,  exposure  to  poisons,  gases  and  dusts, 
and,  of  course,  against  excessively  long  hours,  es- 
pecially at  night.  Personal  hygiene  on  the  part 
of  the  employe  was  also  emphasized  as  of  impor- 
tance, both  to  him  and  to  his  fellow  workers.  A 
system  of  record-keeping  was  recommended  for 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Interim  Re- 
port. Industrial  Efficiency  and  Fatigue.  Part  I,  pp.  41-67. 
London,  February,  1917. 

flbid,  Memorandum  No.  10,  Sickness  and  Injury,  London, 
January.  1916. 

118 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

absences,  sicknesses,  and  deaths,  as  a  valuable  in- 
dex of  the  health  of  the  workers.  One  of  the  lat- 
est memoranda*  issued  presents  a  model  medical 
certificate  to  be  used  by  physicians  in  accounting 
for  the  absence  of  workers  from  their  regular  jobs. 
In  one  munition  plant  with  a  force  of  36,000, 
where  careful  records  were  kept,  it  was  found,  in 
a  study  of  two  departments,  that  the  sickness  rate 
among  men  working  overtime  was  5.5  per  cent  as 
against  3.7  per  cent  among  those  on  double  shift. 
In  one  of  these  departments,  among  1,000  men  on 
overtime  the  rate  was  as  high  as  8  per  cent.  The 
monthly  sickness  rate  for  the  entire  plant  rose 
from  2.9  per  cent  in  July,  1914,  to  over  4  per  cent 
in  the  first  quarter  of  1915,  and  in  another  large 
plant  the  rate  had  risen  to  7  per  cent.  These  in- 
creases were  attributed  to  overtime,  night  work, 
and  the  large  number  of  new  employes.  More- 
over, Professor  Loveday  concludes  as  a  result  of 
his  studies  noted  above  that  the  amount  of  lost 
time  due  to  sickness  is  greatly  underestimated  in 
factory  records,  and  the  proportion  due  to  slack- 
ness consequently  overestimated.  In  instances 
where  an  increase  in  sickness  has  not  been  noted 
since  the  war,  the  fact  is  accounted  for  by  high 
wages  and  good  canteen  provision.  The  harmful 
effect  on  health  of  long  hours  and  especially  of 
Sunday  labor  is  brought  out  by  figures  quoted  also 
by  Professor  Loveday.  In  one  factory  during  the 
spring  when  there  was  much  Sunday  work,  "no 


*  Ibid,  Memorandum  No.  16,  Medical  Certificates  for  Muni- 
tion Workers.     London,  February,  1917. 

119 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

fewer  than  22  per  cent  of  the  men  were  at  one  time 
sick;  but  the  number  of  men  on  the  sick-list  in 
August  when  Sunday  work  had  been  much  re- 
duced .  .  .  was  only  a  trifle  over  4  per  cent  of  the 
whole  body." 

As  part  of  a  program  of  prevention,  a  prelimi- 
nary medical  examination  was  recommended  for 
all  workers,  and  in  special  departments  and  dan- 
ger zones  a  periodic  examination  as  well.  In  some 
plants  this  was  the  practice,  and  had  been  found 
to  be  of  great  advantage.  Such  a  system  of  exam- 
inations and  a  program  by  which  unfavorable 
working  conditions  should  be  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum represent  the  preventive  side  of  the  Com- 
mittee's recommendations.  For  cases  of  actual 
sickness  they  advised  medical  and  nursing  re- 
sources for  each  plant. 

Accidents:  On  the  side  of  accident  prevention 
the  Committee  recommended,  of  course,  the  guard- 
ing of  machinery,  the  adoption  of  safety  appli- 
ances, the  regulation  of  dangerous  processes,  ade- 
quate lighting  of  the  shops,  and  careful  cleaning 
of  machinery.  To  further  the  co-operation  of  em- 
ployes in  avoiding  accidents  they  advocated  the 
forming  of  committees  of  workers  to  investigate 
all  accidents  occurring  in  the  departments  in  which 
they  are  at  work.  Employes  should  also  be  in- 
structed in  regard  to  accidents  by  the  vigilant  su- 
pervision of  the  foreman  and  through  the  distri- 
bution of  leaflets  and  the  posting  of  placards.  A 
certain  number  in  each  department  should  receive 
training  in  first  aid. 

120 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

Since  injuries  in  munition  factories  occur  almost 
inevitably  because  of  the  dangerous  nature  of  the 
work,  provision  should  be  made  for  their  prompt 
and  effective  treatment.  More  careful  attention 
should  be  given  to  minor  injuries  which  now  often 
go  untreated  and  frequently  develop  serious  com- 
plications. For  these,  local  dressing  stations  were 
suggested,  and  for  the  more  serious  accidents  a 
central  room  with  more  elaborate  equipment.  Full 
records  should  be  kept  of  accidents  and  of  their 
treatment. 

The  urgent  necessity  for  such  provisions  in  mu- 
nition plants  was  emphasized  by  figures  supplied 
by  certain  representative  shops,  showing  the  fre- 
quency of  accidents  under  the  present  abnormal 
conditions.  In  11  plants  employing  a  total  of 
about  38,000  workers,  35,000  surgical  dressings 
had  been  performed  during  the  first  ten  months  of 
1915.  In  still  another  munition  factory,  during 
the  fall  of  1914,  when  working  hours  were  from 
8  a.  m.  to  5 :45  p.  m.,  an  average  of  100  first-aid 
dressings  were  performed  each  month  per  1,000 
employed,  while  in  1915,  for  the  same  period,  on 
the  day  shift  from  8  a.  m.  to  8  p.  m.,  the  average 
rose  to  292  per  1,000  and  on  the  night  shift  from 
8  p.  m.  to  8  a.  m.,  to  508. 

Industrial  Diseases:  Industrial  diseases  con- 
stitute a  special  phase  of  the  health  problem  in  the 
manufacture  of  munitions  and  have  been  a  cause 
of  serious  concern  to  the  Health  of  Munition 
Workers  Committee.*  The  most  important  poi- 

*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee,  Memorandum 
No.  8,  Special  Industrial  Diseases.  London,  February,  1916. 

121 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

sons  to  which  workers  in  this  industry  are  exposed 
are  lead,  tetrachloride  of  ethane,  nitrous  fumes, 
tetryl,  fulminate  of  mercury,  and  tri-nitro-toluol. 
Lead  is  used  in  making  bullets,  and  in  various  sub- 
sidiary processes;  tetrachloride  of  ethane,  an  in- 
gredient in  the  varnish  applied  to  the  wings  and 
bodies  of  aeroplanes,  has  been  discovered  only 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war  as  an  industrial 
poison;  nitrous  fumes  are  produced  in  the  manu- 
facture of  almost  all  explosives ;  tetryl,  fulminate 
of  mercury,  and  the  highly  explosive  T.N.T.  (tri- 
nitro-toluol),  of  whose  double  dangers  munition 
workers  have  learned  so  much,  are  all  three  used 
in  making  powders,  but  they  may  cause  poisoning 
even  in  handling  the  powder  in  loading  shells  or 
primers.  The  first  three  of  these  poisons  are  the 
more  dangerous  because  they  cause  serious  or 
even  fatal  illness.  The  last  three  cause  skin  af- 
fections, active  dermatitis  or  eczema,  and  often 
more  serious  disorders.  In  fact,  instances  of 
death  resulting  from  T.N.T.  poisoning  have  been 
noted  in  the  English  newspapers.  In  the  case  of 
fulminate  of  mercury,  regarding  which  complaints 
have  been  made  by  workers  in  such  an  important 
American  munition  center  as  Bridgeport,  Conn., 
eczema  is  the  usual  affection,  but  mercurial  poi- 
soning, which  is  even  more  serious,  may  occur. 
Certain  fluids  used  in  lubricating  and  cooling 
metal  may  also  cause  eczema. 

For  each  of  the  poisons  mentioned  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  resulting  disease  has  been  given  by  the 
Committee  as  well  as  measures  for  prevention  and 

122 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

treatment.  Provision  of  proper  washing  facili- 
ties and  of  protective  overalls,  periodic  medical 
examination,  transference  to  other  work  of  those 
readily  affected  and  the  reduction  of  the  period  of 
exposure  through  the  absence  of  overtime  are  rec- 
ommended as  general  steps  to  avoid  industrial 
poisoning.  Exhaust  ventilation  was  advocated 
for  drawing  off  fumes  and  dust;  the  wearing  of 
respirators  as  a  protection  against  dust  that  can- 
not be  carried  off  by  exhausts  or  allayed  by  wet- 
ting; emergency  helmets  provided  with  a  supply 
of  fresh  air  from  without  for  those  exposed  to 
escaping  fumes;  head  coverings  for  women  and 
gauze  veils  to  protect  the  faces  of  workers  against 
poisonous  dust.  As  further  general  preventive 
measures,  it  was  urged  that  only  healthy  and  tem- 
perate persons  be  employed,  and  that  none  ex- 
posed to  poisons  be  permitted  to  begin  work  with- 
out having  taken  food. 

Washing  Facilities :  The  importance  of  wash- 
ing accommodations  has  been  strongly  emphasized 
by  the  Committee  not  only  for  workers  engaged 
in  processes  involving  poisons  or  excessive  heat, 
dust  or  dirt,  but  for  the  good  health,  efficiency  and 
self-respect  of  the  entire  force.  One  of  their  mem- 
oranda* offers  practical  suggestions  as  to  the  most 
suitable  arrangements,  both  for  washing  facilities 
and  for  baths. 

Ventilation,  Heating  and  Lighting:  At  a  time 
when  so  large  a  number  of  new  plants  were  being 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.   Washing  Facili- 
ties and  Baths.    Memorandum  No.  14.    London,  August,  1916. 

123 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

erected  and  old  ones  enlarged,  it  was  also  fitting 
that  the  importance  of  ventilation,  heating  and 
lighting  should  be  emphasized.  This  has  been 
done  by  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Com- 
mittee in  pointing  out  the  close  connection  between 
proper  provision  for  these  three  elements  in  fac- 
tory construction  and  the  maintenance  of  maxi- 
mum output  by  the  worker.  Suggestions  regard- 
ing modern  standards  and  methods  were  made  by 
them  in  considerable  detail.* 

Eye-Strain:  Closely  connected  with  the  prob- 
lem of  lighting  factories  was  the  prevalence  of 
eye-strain  and  the  danger  of  eye  accidents  among 
munition  workers.f  Eyesight  may  be  impaired 
through  exposure  to  intense  heat,  to  industrial  poi- 
sons, or  through  "uncorrected  errors  of  refrac- 
tion." Special  inquiry  has  revealed  a  large  in- 
crease not  only  of  eye-strain,  but  also  of  eye  in- 
juries, among  munition  workers  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  many  of  which  were  preventable. 
For  example,  the  wearing  of  proper  guards  or 
goggles  protects  the  eyes  from  flying  particles  and 
colored  glass  lessens  irritation  where  there  is  ex- 
posure to  brilliant  light,  as  in  acetylene  welding. 

The  eyesight  of  operatives  who  are  to  be  en- 
gaged on  fine  work  should  be  carefully  tested.  In 
case  of  slight  accident,  first-aid  treatment  should 
be  provided  to  prevent  serious  after-effects.  Since 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Ventilation  and 
Lighting  of  Munition  Factories  and  Workshops.  Memoran- 
dum No.  9.  London,  January,  1916. 

t  Ibid.  The  Effect  of  Industrial  Conditions  Upon  Eyesight. 
Memorandum  No.  15.  London,  October,  1916. 

124 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

eye-strain  is  often  concomitant  with  general  fa- 
tigue, it  is  bound  to  accompany  overlong  hours, 
night  work  and  undernourishment.  Hence  we 
have  again  a  plea — and  a  reason — for  the  im- 
provement of  working  conditions  in  general. 

Work  Incentives  as  Health  Factors*:  Of  all 
the  varied  influences  affecting  the  health  and  effi- 
ciency of  munition  workers  the  most  complex  and 
intricate  are  incentives  to  work.  The  Commit- 
tee's investigators  found  that  the  better  the  or- 
ganization and  the  better  the  hygienic  environ- 
ment, both  in  the  factory  and  in  the  home,  the 
greater  is  the  stimulus  to  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  worker.  The  main  incentive,  however,  which 
leads  to  greater  output  is  wages.  A  piece  rate 
system  which  the  worker  can  easily  understand, 
according  to  their  findings,  may  be  expected  to 
give  a  larger  output  than  time  wages,  and  the  rise 
and  fall  of  earnings  of  individual  workers  under 
such  a  system  is  another  valuable  indication  of 
their  health  and  efficiency.  It  is  important,  also, 
in  order  to  have  the  desired  result  in  output  from 
a  piece-wage  system  that  workers  be  prevented 
from  exhausting  themselves  through  overspeed- 
ing,  that  well-planned  rest  pauses  be  provided, 
that  workers  be  instructed  in  the  most  efficient 
methods  of  performing  processes  of  work,  and 
that  hours  be  not  too  long  to  permit  of  opportunity 
to  enjoy  what  the  wages  can  buy. 


*  Ibid.     Interim  Report.     Industrial  Efficiency  and  Fatigue. 
Part  I,  pp.  69-84.     London,  February,  1917. 

125 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 
GENERAL  WELFARE  PROVISION* 

In  addition  to  the  factory  environment  and  the 
length  of  the  work  period,  other  factors  which 
do  not  come  ordinarily  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  management  distinctly  affect  the  efficiency  of 
workers.  Housing,  transportation,  canteens,  and 
the  welfare  of  individual  workers  are  the  most  im- 
portant among  them.  The  Newman  Committee 
very  strongly  recommend  that  through  the  ap- 
pointment of  welfare  supervisors  employers  should 
endeavor  to  control  any  detrimental  effect  on  the 
workers  of  poor  housing,  undernourishment,  and 
unfavorable  living  conditions. 

Housing  of  Workers:  The  sudden  influx  into 
districts  surrounding  munition  plants  has  greatly 
overtaxed  the  housing  accommodations.  In  many 
instances,  dwellings  intended  for  one  family  are 
occupied  by  several,  and  beds  are  used  in  day  and 
night  shifts.  Before  any  comprehensive  plan  for 
the  increase  of  housing  accommodations  is  under- 
taken, inquiry  is  recommended  into  the  extent  of 
the  need,  but  pending  action,  the  welfare  super- 
visor can  help  matters  by  keeping  a  register  of 
available  houses  and  lodgings,  by  aiding  workers 
in  need  of  rooms,  and  by  notifying  the  manage- 
ment when  the  supply  is  insufficient. 

Transit:  Because  of  the  housing  shortage, 
many  workers  are  forced  to  live  at  considerable 
distance  from  their  places  of  employment.  Trav- 
eling to  and  fro  in  overcrowded  cars  and  trains, 

*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.  Welfare  Super- 
vision. Memorandum  No.  2.  London,  December,  1915. 

126 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

losing  time  by  waiting,  making  long  and  tiresome 
journeys,  which  further  extend  an  overlong  day  or 
night  of  work,  decrease  both  efficiency  and  resist- 
ance to  disease.  Workers  were  found  who  left 
their  homes  daily  before  5  a.  m.  and  returned  at  10 
p.  m.  or  later,  leaving  little  more  than  six  hours 
for  sleep — and  family  life.  The  Committee  sug- 
gested that  the  welfare  supervisor  ascertain  the 
means  of  transit  used  and  the  length  of  time  spent 
in  traveling,  indicate  the  need  for  increased  trans- 
portation to  the  right  authorities,  and  suggest 
modification  of  factory  hours  to  suit  existing  tran- 
sit conditions. 

Industrial  Canteens:  "The  munition  worker, 
like  the  soldier,  requires  good  rations  to  enable 
him  to  do  good  work."  This  fact  the  Committee 
recognized  in  their  recommendations  regarding 
canteens  in  the  large  war  supply  factories.*  In 
one  of  their  earliest  reports,  they  pointed  out  the 
difficulty  encountered  by  employes  in  securing 
good  food,  when  the  employer  has  made  no  pro- 
vision, and  urged  the  establishment  of  industrial 
canteens  in  all  plants,  but  especially  when  workers 
are  employed  in  large  numbers  at  night  and  are 
unable  to  go  home  for  a  hot  meal.  They  made 
suggestions  regarding  dietary,  cost  of  food,  the 
best  type  of  canteen  to  adopt,  as  well  as  its  man- 
agement. It  was  conceded  that  it  might  be  desir- 


*  Industrial  Canteens,  No.  3,  November,  1915;  Canteen  Con- 
struction and  Equipment,  No.  6,  January,  1916;  and  Investiga- 
tion of  Workers'  Food  and  Suggestions  as  to  Dietary,  No.  11, 
July,  1916,  London. 

127 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

able  in  certain  districts  and  under  restrictions  to 
sell  alcoholic  liquors. 

Attention  was  also  given  to  the  actual  physical 
construction,  location  and  equipment  of  industrial 
canteens.  A  study  of  typical  meals  furnished  to 
munition  workers  in  industrial  canteens,  served  in 
restaurants,  or  brought  by  them  from  home  was 
undertaken  for  the  Newman  Committee  by  one 
of  their  members,  Mr.  Leonard  E.  Hill,  in  the 
laboratories  of  the  Medical  Research  Committee. 
In  his  report  Mr.  Hill  stressed  the  relation  of 
both  physical  and  nervous  fatigue  to  the  workers' 
daily  diet,  and  with  his  analysis  of  the  meals  ex- 
amined as  a  basis,  made  suggestions  for  a  "well- 
balanced  minimum"  dietary  for  canteens. 

Individual  Welfare:  Aside  from  the  help  the 
supervisor  can  render  in  solving  problems  of  hous- 
ing, transit,  and  food,  even  greater  service  can  be 
given  in  adjusting  matters  concerning  the  individ- 
ual welfare  of  the  worker  which  will  be  reflected 
in  the  efficiency  of  the  labor  force.  Such  functions 
include  attention  to  cases  of  sickness  or  irregular 
attendance  at  work  in  co-operation  with  the  medi- 
cal staff,  observation  of  individual  reactions  to 
night  or  Sunday  work  or  overtime,  planning  for 
recreation  and  education,  and  the  maintenance  of 
proper  discipline  and  conduct.  The  welfare 
worker  should  also  be  in  close  touch  with  the  en- 
gagement of  new  labor  or  even  attend  to  the  actual 
engaging  of  workers.  He — or  she — should  also 
investigate  complaints  and  causes  of  dismissal. 
The  Committee  were  emphatic  in  their  indorse- 

128 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

ment  of  welfare  work  for  both  men  and  women, 
but  recommended  especially  the  appointment  of 
women  supervisors  where  women  and  girls  are 
employed. 

EMPLOYMENT    OF    WOMEN 

Although  the  problems  discussed  in  all  the 
memoranda  of  the  Health  of  Munition  Workers 
Committee  affect  women  as  well  as  men,  the  em- 
ployment of  women  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
has  grown  to  such  dimensions  that  a  special  re- 
port has  been  devoted  to  recommendations  in  this 
field.*  The  response  of  English  women  of  all 
classes  to  their  country's  call  has  been  one  of  the 
finest  things  of  the  war.  Women  of  wage-earning 
experience  and  those  of  none — university  and  art 
students,  teachers,  secretaries,  domestic  servants, 
clerks,  laundresses,  textile  workers  —  old  women 
and  young,  married  women  and  single,  in  a  splen- 
did spirit  of  patriotism,  have  volunteered  in  the 
army  of  labor,  and  because  of  their  enthusiasm 
have  achieved  remarkable  success.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1916,  the  War  Office  published  a  report  on 
Women's  War  Work  "for  the  use  of  recruiting 
officers,  military  representatives  and  tribunals." 
It  lists  some  29  double-columned  pages  of 
processes  in  which  women  have  been  success- 
fully employed  in  "temporary"  replacement  of 
men,  and  in  a  large  number  of  photographs  shows 
them  engaged  in  such  heavy  jobs  as  coal-heaving, 


*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee.     Memorandum 
No.  4,  Employment  of  Women.    London,  January,  1916. 

129 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

stoking,  boiler-making,  cleaning  locomotives  and 
other  work  which  they  have  never  before  been 
called  on  to  do.  Not  alone  have  women  taken  up 
men's  tasks  willingly,  but  they  have  accepted  with- 
out complaint  conditions  which  were  immediately 
detrimental  to  efficiency  and  which  would,  if  con- 
tinued, be  disastrous  to  health,  and  this  at  a  time 
above  all  times  when  the  health  of  the  present  and 
future  mothers  of  the  nation  should  be  safe- 
guarded. 

Night  work  for  women,  especially  in  the  muni- 
tion industry,  has  been  revived  after  almost  a 
century  of  disuse,  and  employment  of  married 
women  and  of  young  girls  has,  of  course,  in- 
creased. Hence  it  is  of  great  importance  to  safe- 
guard their  period  of  employment.  The  Commit- 
tee realized  that  in  the  emergency  night  work  was 
inevitable,  but  urged  that  its  evils  be  mitigated  by 
careful  supervision,  by  the  provision  of  sufficient 
pauses  for  rest  and  meals,  and,  where  desirable, 
by  periodic  change  to  the  day  shift.  During  the 
meal  hour  on  the  twelve-hour  night  shift  women 
were  found  asleep  beside  their  work,  too  ex- 
hausted even  to  go  to  an  attractive  mess  room  to 
get  the  food  to  sustain  them  during  the  remaining 
hours  of  the  night.  The  recommendations  for 
hours,  shifts,  overtime  and  rest  pauses,  for  women 
workers  are  substantially  the  same  as  those  al- 
ready given  in  the  section  on  hours  of  work.*  Em- 
ployment of  mothers  with  infants  was  deprecated 
by  the  Committee,  and  the  need  of  consideration 

*See  pages  109-114. 

130 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

in  arranging  hours  of  work  for  married  women 
was  urged. 

The  questions  of  housing  and  transit  were  also 
given  further  attention  in  relation  to  women's  em- 
ployment. Many  women  were  forced  to  spend 
two  and  three  hours  traveling  each  way  to  and 
from  work.  This  often  meant  "a  day  begun  at  4 
or  even  3 :30  a.  m.,  for  work  at  6  a.  m.,  followed 
by  fourteen  hours  in  the  factory,  and  another  two 
or  two  and  one-half  hours  on  the  journey  back," 
ending  finally  "at  10  or  10:30  p.  m.,  in  a  home  or 
lodging  where  the  prevailing  degree  of  overcrowd- 
ing precludes  all  possibility  of  comfortable  rest. 
Beds  are  never  empty  and  rooms  never  aired,  for 
in  a  badly  crowded  district  the  beds,  like  the  occu- 
pants, are  organized  in  day  and  night  shifts." 
Moreover  cars  were  so  crowded  that  the  women's 
clothes  were  often  torn  in  the  struggle  to  get  even 
standing  room.  There  was,  therefore,  crying  need 
for  increased  transportation  which  would  also  re- 
lieve the  housing  situation.  But  even  with  im- 
proved transit  long  journeys  cruelly  extended  the 
day.  Hence  it  was  all  the  more  necessary  to  guard 
against  excessive  working  hours. 

Good  sanitary  conditions  in  the  factories  are 
especially  important  for  women  wage-earners. 
Workrooms  should  be  clean,  bright  and  airy^,  well 
warmed  in  winter  and  well  lighted  at  night.  Cloak- 
rooms, washing  facilities  and  sanitary  conveni- 
ences should  be  provided.  For  the  protection  es- 
pecially of  those  unaccustomed  to  factory  work, 
the  lifting  or  carrying  of  heavy  weights  and  the 

131 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

strain  of  prolonged  standing  should  be  avoided. 
It  is  recommended  also  that  a  woman  physician 
examine  all  applicants  for  employment.  Careful 
oversight  by  forewomen,  nurses,  and  women  wel- 
fare supervisors  in  the  fields  of  work,  health  and 
general  well-being  was  a  point  much  emphasized. 
In  conclusion  the  Committee  stated  that  in  their 
opinion  if  the  present  conditions  surrounding  the 
employment  of  women  continued,  "it  would  be 
impracticable  to  secure  or  maintain  for  an  ex- 
tended period  the  high  maximum  output  of  which 
women  are  undoubtedly  capable." 

JUVENILE  EMPLOYMENT 

Special  attention  has  been  given  also  to  the 
problems  of  child  labor  in  war  time.*  The  Com- 
mittee declare  that:  "At  the  present  time,  when 
the  war  is  destroying  so  much  of  its  best  manhood, 
the  nation  is  under  special  obligation  to  secure  that 
the  rising  generation  grows  up  strong  and  hardy 
both  in  body  and  character.  It  is  necessary  to 
guard  not  only  against  immediate  breakdown,  but 
also  against  the  imposition  of  strains  which  may 
stunt  future  growth  and  development."  Such 
strains  were  found  in  the  long  hours  of  work,  by 
day  and  by  night,  sometimes  through  seven  days 
in  the  week,  in  the  poor  housing  and  transit  facili- 
ties, and  in  the  often  unsatisfactory  home  condi- 
tions. Factory  inspectors  bore  witness  to  the  more 

*  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee,  Memorandum 
No.  13,  Juvenile  Employment.  London,  August,  1916. 

Ministry  of  Munitions.   The  Boy  in  Industry.    London,  1917. 
132 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

marked  fatigue  produced  by  overtime  and  night 
work  on  the  adolescent  than  on  the  adult  worker, 
a  menace  not  only  to  present  health  but  to  growth 
and  physical  development.  Moreover  these  chil- 
dren had  no  leisure,  no  recreation,  no  opportunity 
for  continuing  their  education.  Exemptions  from 
the  legal  age  limit  had  been  permitted.*  In  a  case 
cited  boys  of  thirteen  were  allowed  to  work  full 
time  in  a  large  munition  center,  provided  they  at- 
tended evening  school.  The  Committee  pointed 
out  that  it  was  worse  than  useless  to  require  such 
attendance  for  boys  who  worked  from  6  a.  m. 
until  5  p.  m.  or  longer. 

The  problem  of  boy  labor  seemed  more  pressing 
to  the  Committee  than  the  employment  of  young 
girls,  since  boys,  who  to  a  great  extent  were  em- 
ployed to  assist  men,  worked  the  same  hours  as 
men.  Moreover  boys  under  sixteen  are  said  to 
be  even  more  delicate  than  girls  of  the  same  age. 

The  recommendations  regarding  hours  are  sim- 
ilar to  those  already  given.  Boys  should  be  per- 
mitted, if  the  work  requires  it,  and  conditions  of 
employment  are  favorable,  to  work  more  than 
twelve  hours  a  day  up  to  a  weekly  total  of  65,  but 


*  The  latest  published  figures  (October  16,  1916)  give  a  total 
of  14,915  children  formally  exempted  on  that. date  for  agricul- 
tural work,  but  give  no  estimate  of  the  number  released  for 
munition  or  other  industrial  employment.  (Great  Britain. 
Board  of  Education.  School  Attendance  and  Employment  in 
Agriculture.  Cd.  8171.  December,  1916.)  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb 
estimates  that  in  addition  between  50,000  and  60,000  children 
have  left  school  for  work  without  formal  exemption,  while  Sir 
James  Yoxall  believes  that  between  150,000  and  200,000  chil- 
dren between  eleven  and  thirteen  have  left  school  to  go  to 
work. 

133 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

the  overtime  should  be  concentrated  on  three  non- 
consecutive  evenings  of  the  week.  One  day's  rest 
in  seven  should  be  assured.  Night  work  should  be 
permitted  for  boys  under  sixteen  and  girls  under 
eighteen  only  when  no  other  labor  can  be  obtained. 
Because  of  the  greater  adaptability  of  youth,  it 
was  thought,  when  found  absolutely  necessary  to 
employ  them  at  night,  that  they  would  suffer  less 
from  weekly  alternation  of  day  and  night  shifts 
than  adult  workers.  Furthermore,  as  young  per- 
sons cannot  profitably  work  for  a  continuous  spell 
of  five  hours  (the  maximum  legal  period),  short 
rests  should  be  allowed,  and  time  for  refreshment 
when  breakfast  has  necessarily  been  taken  early. 
Not  only  should  the  ordinary  holidays  be  granted, 
but,  when  possible,  vacations  of  a  week  or 
more. 

The  situation  is  further  complicated  for  young 
workers  by  overcrowding  and  bad  home  condi- 
tions. One  large  munition  center  revealed  numer- 
ous cases  in  which  three  people  slept  together  in 
one  bed.  A  case  said  to  be  typical  was  described, 
in  which  a  boy  of  fourteen  slept  in  a  bed  with 
two  young  men,  while  in  the  same  room  two  young 
girls  slept  in  another  bed.  Because  of  the  absence 
of  fathers  at  the  front  parental  control  was  often 
weakened.  After  a  long  day  of  work  many  chil- 
dren were  tempted  to  stay  out  late  at  the  movies 
or  to  dance,  and  their  high  earnings  induced  thrift- 
lessness.  Moreover  an  increase  in  juvenile  crime 
had  become  so  marked,  according  to  comments  in 
the  press,  that  the  Home  Secretary  had  called  a 

134 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

special  conference  of  social  workers  to  deal  with 
it.  The  Newman  Committee  recommended  special 
welfare  workers  for  boys  and  outlined  in  detail 
the  duties  of  the  "Boy  Visitor."  The  Ministry  of 
Munitions  has  further  emphasized  the  importance 
of  welfare  work  for  boys  and  elaborated  on  the 
functions  of  the  supervisors  in  a  special  pamphlet 
on  "The  Boy  in  Industry."  The  "Boy  Visitor" 
should  watch  carefully  the  physical  condition  of 
the  boys,  visit  them  when  sick,  investigate  other 
causes  of  irregular  attendance,  receive  and  dis- 
pose of  complaints  made  either  by  employers  or 
boys,  advise  before  any  case  of  dismissal,  look 
into  conditions  of  housing,  transit  and  die- 
tary, plan  recreation,  and  promote  plans  for  sav- 
ing. 

SUMMARY  OF  RECOMMENDATIONS 

The  reports  of  the  Health  of  Munition  Work- 
ers Committee  give  evidence  of  an  enlightened 
and  common-sense  attitude  toward  the  industrial 
problems  which  the  war  has  created.  A  headlong, 
unthinking  policy  of  blind  haste  had  at  first  led 
to  the  needless  waste  of  precious  human  strength. 
This  panic  has  now  given  place  to  a  realization  of 
the  fact  that  increased  output  is  to  be  gained 
through  the  saving  of  the  workers'  health  and 
strength,  and  an  increase  in  the  labor  force,  not 
through  the  taxing  of  endurance  to  the  breaking 
point.  But  there  is  still  need  to  hold  up  standards. 
These  standards,  as  outlined  by  the  Committee, 
may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

135 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

I.  HOURS  OF  WORK  : 

a.  Seven-day  labor  should  be  abolished  for 
men,  women  and  children. 

b.  Excessive  overtime  should  be  done  away 
with  by  the  introduction  of  shifts. 

c.  Hours   of   labor  should  be  adapted   to 
the  age  and  sex  of  the  worker  and  the 
nature  of  the  process  to  be  performed. 

d.  Night    work,    where    possible,    should 
be  organized  in  eight-hour,  rather  than 
twelve-hour,  shifts,  and  in  no  case  should 
women   work   at  night  more  than   60 
hours  a  week.    Its  evils  should  be  fur- 
ther mitigated  by  sufficient  rest  periods 
and  by  periodic  change  to  the  day  shift. 

e.  Meal  periods    should    be    at    least    an 
hour  in  length  on  twelve-hour  shifts, 
and  half  an  hour  on  eight-hour  shifts. 
Further  breaks   should   be   allowed   in 
long  five-hour  spells. 

II.  HEALTH  AND  HYGIENE  I 

a.  Industrial    fatigue  should  be  decreased 
by  a  careful  study  of  processes  of  work 
and  of  the  most  economical  method  of 
performing  them. 

b.  Provision  for  both  prevention  and  treat- 
ment of  work  accidents,  industrial  dis- 
ease, and  other  illness,  should  be  made 
in  all  munition  plants. 

c.  Matters   of  factory   sanitation   such   as 
ventilation,  heating,  lighting,  and  wash- 

136 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

ing  facilities  should  receive  special  at- 
tention. 

III.   GENERAL  WELFARE : 

a.  Improvement  of  housing  and  transit  fa- 
cilities should  enlist  the  co-operation  of 
employers. 

b.  In  the  interests  of  health  and  efficiency, 
all  munition  works  should  have  canteens 
where  employes  can  secure  hot  food. 

c.  The  appointment  of  welfare  supervisors 
is  recommended  in  all  factories. 

d.  Problems    involved    in    the    increased 
employment    of    women    and    children 
should  receive  the  careful  attention  of 
both    managers    and    the    government. 
Special  welfare  workers  should  be  as- 
signed to  their  oversight. 

SUBSEQUENT  CONDITIONS 

The  Committee  on  the  Health  of  Munition 
Workers  have  not  been  fortunate  enough  to  see 
all  their  recommendations  adopted.  The  news- 
papers did  not  give  publicity  to  their  findings  until 
some  time  after  the  reports  were  actually  sub- 
mitted, and  they  were  then  subordinated  to  mat- 
ters of  greater  popular  interest.  Furthermore, 
while  the  government  could  make  changes  in  the 
factories  it  owned,  control  over  private  establish- 
ments, which  are  in  the  majority,  was  not  so 
complete. 

Definite  progress  has  been  made,  however,  in 
137 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN    ENGLAND 

relieving  the  conditions  which  were  the  special 
point  of  attack  in  the  memoranda  of  the  Commit- 
tee. Sunday  labor  has  been  decreased  as  a  result 
of  a  circular  issued  by  the  Minister  of  Munitions 
in  January,  1916,  recommending  that  Sunday 
labor  in  "controlled"  establishments  be  abolished. 
As  a  result  it  was  reported  in  Parliament  on 
March  30,  1916,  that  in  2,400  works  inspected,  60 
per  cent  had  no  Sunday  work,  and  of  the  other 
40  per  cent,  many  were  engaged  only  in  repair 
work  and  others  were  manned  by  voluntary  week- 
end workers.  The  attempt  to  relieve  the  strain 
on  regular  employes  of  Sunday  work  has  led  to 
the  recruiting  of  a  special  force  of  week-end 
workers,  made  up  largely  of  women  of  the  leisure 
class,  who  volunteer  their  services  for  Sunday  in 
order  that  the  factories  may  be  kept  running  and 
the  regular  workers  released  for  rest.  Dukes' 
daughters  and  generals'  ladies,  artists  and  au- 
thors, students  and  teachers,  ministers'  and  law- 
yers' wives,  make  up  the  membership  of  the  pic- 
turesque W.  R.  M.  W.  (Week-end  Relief  Munition 
Workers).  They  are  paid  at  the  current  rates, 
and  are  "voluntary"  only  in  the  sense  that  they 
offer  to  work  of  their  own  free  will.  An  order 
issued  in  April,  1917,  has  now  made  the  abolition 
of  Sunday  work  in  both  government  and  controlled 
plants  of  almost  universal  application. 

No  definite  ruling  regarding  daily  hours  of  work 
seems  thus  far  to  have  been  issued  by  the  Ministry 
of  Munitions,  but  in  association  with  the  Home 
Office  it  has  formed  a  committee  to  regulate  hours 

138 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   ENGLAND 

as  well  as  to  secure  a  weekly  day  of  rest  for  the 
workers.  The  effect  of  the  steps  taken  and  the 
vigor  of  their  prosecution  have  been  difficult  to 
ascertain,  but  the  tendency  has  been  to  reduce  the 
amount  of  overtime.  In  August,  1916,  in  response 
to  a  question  put  in  Parliament,  Dr.  Addison  of 
the  Munitions  Ministry,  who  has  since  become 
Minister  of  Munitions  in  the  Lloyd  George  cab- 
inet, stated  that  the  special  joint  committee  on 
hours  was  taking  steps  to  bring  the  hours  for 
women  and  girls  in  controlled  establishments  with- 
in the  sixty-hour  limit  allowed  under  the  ordinary 
provisions  of  the  Factory  Acts.  In  April,  1917, 
a  former  investigator  for  the  Newman  Committee 
reported  that  in  government-owned  munition 
plants  women  were  working  on  eight-hour  shifts. 
This  was  not  because  of  any  general  order  but 
the  result  of  action  taken  by  the  various  local 
munition  committees  in  whose  hands  the  power  of 
adjusting  hours  has  been  entrusted.  The  latest 
report  of  the  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  and 
Workshops  remarks  on  the  distinct  tendency  to- 
ward a  reduction  in  amount  of  latitude  sought  by 
employers  applying  for  overtime  permits  and  a 
general  voluntary  decrease  in  working  hours. 

The  recommendation  of  the  Newman  Commit- 
tee that  the  ordinary  holidays  should  not  be  inter- 
fered with  was  given  a  trial  at  Easter  in  1916, 
but  Lloyd  George,  then  Minister  of  Munitions, 
claimed  that  in  the  fortnight  which  included 
Easter  Monday  the  output  had  been  decreased 
one-half.  As  a  consequence,  and  also  because  of 

139 


MUNITION    WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

the  extra  need  of  munitions  for  the  great  offensive 
on  the  Somme,  the  customary  "bank"  holidays  at 
Whitsuntide  and  in  August  were  not  granted. 
Later,  at  the  following  Christmas  and  New  Year's 
(1917),  two  extra  days  of  holiday  were  given  to 
make  up  for  this  omission,  and  in  the  spring  of 
1917  the  usual  Easter  holiday  was  maintained. 

Definite  efforts  have  been  made  on  the  part  of 
the  government  to  carry  into  effect  the  recommen- 
dations of  the  Committee  in  regard  to  industrial 
canteens.  A  Canteen  Committee  was  appointed  by 
the  Central  Control  Board  (for  liquor  traffic), 
in  conjunction  with  the  Munitions  Ministry,  to 
assist  firms  in  the  construction  and  financing  of 
canteens.  In  June,  1916,  it  was  reported  that 
canteens  had  been  established  in  practically  all  the 
government-owned  factories,  and  that  in  the 
"controlled"  works  the  government  had  en- 
couraged their  introduction  by  subsidizing  them, 
either  through  permitting  employers  to  pay  the 
expenses  out  of  profits  that  would  otherwise  have 
reverted  to  the  national  treasury,  or  by  contribu- 
ting half  the  costs  incurred  by  voluntary  agencies 
such  as  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association, 
in  establishing  an  industrial  canteen.  The  Can- 
teen Committee  also  published  in  October,  1916, 
a  pamphlet  on  Feeding  the  Munition  Worker,  as 
a  "comprehensive  and  practical  guide"  to  canteen 
construction  and  management. 

Another  important  step  affecting  the  general 
well-being  of  the  workers  was  the  establishment 
in  the  first  quarter  of  1916  of  a  special  Welfare 

140 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

Department  under  the  Ministry  of  Munitions,  to 
stimulate  the  development  of  welfare  supervision 
in  the  war  factories.  This  department,  under  the 
superintendence  of  Mr.  B.  S.  Rowntree,  also 
undertakes  inquiries  into  working  conditions,  in- 
cluding hours  of  work  and  wages,  endeavors  to 
correct  evils  where  they  are  found,  encourages  the 
provision  of  rest  rooms  and  canteens,  and  through 
a  special  private  fund  furnishes  the  means  of 
"healthful  and  invigorating"  recreation.  The  ap- 
pointment of  at  least  one  woman  welfare  worker 
in  each  national  plant  is  now  required,  and  many 
controlled  factories  are  following  suit.  Excellent 
results  are  said  to  have  followed  from  the  activi- 
ties of  these  supervisors.  In  August,  1916,  this 
department  was  further  empowered  to  make  rules 
regarding  arrangements  for  meals,  supply  of 
drinking  water  and  protective  clothing,  ambulance 
and  first-aid  provision,  supply  and  use  of  seats  in 
workrooms,  washing  and  locker  facilities  and  su- 
pervision of  workers. 

Some  attempts  have  also  been  made  to  relieve 
the  housing  situation  in  a  few  large  munition  cen- 
ters, such  as  Sheffield  and  Woolwich,  where  the 
government  has  either  financed  or  subsidized  the 
building  of  houses  and  of  temporary  "huts"  and 
hostels.  Dr.  Addison,  of  the  Munitions  Ministry, 
stated  in  August,  1916,  that  accommodations  for 
60,000  persons  had  been  provided  in  the  year  pre- 
vious and  in  some  cases  whole  villages  had  been 
built. 

141 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

Effort  has  been  put  forward  by  the  government 
to  protect  munition  workers  from  industrial  poi- 
soning. Sets  of  rules  have  been  drawn  up,  regu- 
lating conditions  of  work  in  dangerous  processes. 
For  example,  an  elaborate  code  of  rules  was  issued 
in  February,  1917  for  factories  making  or  using 
T.  N.  T.  (Cd.  8494) .  Among  the  protective  meas- 
ures required  were  the  medical  examination  at 
least  once  a  week  of  each  worker  employed  on  a 
T.  N.  T.  process,  the  supplying  of  a  half  pint  of 
milk  gratis  to  each  worker  every  morning,  pro- 
vision for  protective  clothing  and  for  washing  it 
at  least  once  a  week,  and  the  required  establish- 
ment of  canteens  at  every  T.  N.  T.  factory  on  the 
principle  that  proper  nourishment  is  essential  for 
resistance  to  industrial  disease. 

In  a  general  way,  also,  the  work  of  the  Health 
of  Munition  Workers  Committee  has  improved 
industrial  conditions.  Public  interest  has  been 
directed  toward  abuses,  and  a  more  intelligent  atti- 
tude created  in  regard  to  sources  of  labor  diffi- 
culties. The  dissatisfaction  of  labor,  however,  has 
been  by  no  means  eliminated,  despite  the  fact  that 
the  Munitions  of  War  Amending  Act,  passed  in 
January,  1916,  remedied  the  worst  evils  of  the 
leaving-certificate  system  and  of  the  administra- 
tion of  the  munition  tribunals.  The  "dilution" 
of  labor  has  progressed  so  far,  and  the  attitude  of 
both  employers  and  the  government  has  been  such 
as  to  make  the  trade  unions  fear  that  after  the 
war  it  will  be  well-nigh  impossible  for  them  to 

142 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

restore  their  ante-bellum  status.  Plans  to  mo- 
bilize the  whole  population  for  national  service, 
civil  as  well  as  military,  on  a  scale  more  compre- 
hensive than  ever  before,  are  being  pushed  for- 
ward with  vigor  by  the  Lloyd-George  ministry,  and 
to  make  this  mobilization  effective  the  club  of 
industrial  conscription  is  being  held  over  the 
heads  of  the  British  people.  In  the  face  of  the 
apparent  weakening  of  their  powers,  however,  the 
unions  are  claiming  large  gains  in  numbers  and 
in  strength,  not  alone  among  women,  but  also 
among  men,  despite  the  heavy  inroads  which  the 
call  to  the  colors  has  made  in  their  membership. 
The  most  immediate  problem  facing  British 
labor  at  present,  however,  is  the  question  of 
wages.  The  cost  of  living  is  soaring  and  wages 
in  many  cases  have  not  kept  pace,  notably  among 
women.  The  Munitions  of  War  Amending  Act 
of  January,  1916,  authorized  the  Minister  of  Mu- 
nitions to  enforce  minimum  wages  for  munition 
workers,  but  no  action  was  taken  which  affected 
the  large  body  of  women  until  July,  1916,  when 
a  wage  order*  was  issued  which  was  designed  to 
do  away  with  the  sweating  of  women.  This  order 
has  aroused  considerable  antagonism  in  labor  cir- 
cles because  its  minimum  rate  becomes  in  effect 
the  maximum.  The  rate  is  fixed  at  4£d.  an  hour 
for  women  of  eighteen  years  or  more  employed  at 
work  customarily  done  by  women.  Women  who 
have  replaced  skilled  men  (a  small  proportion  of 

*  This  is  Statutory  Order  No.  447. 
143 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   ENGLAND 

those  employed  on  munition  work)  are  paid  at 
the  same  piece-work  prices  as  men,  although,  ac- 
cording to  a  prominent  trade  union  man,  because 
they  cannot  turn  out  as  much  work,  their  earnings 
are  only  about  75  per  cent  of  what  men  make. 
The  wage  for  women  who  have  replaced  semi- 
skilled or  unskilled  men  was  fixed  according  to  an 
order  issued  in  May,  1916,  at  a  time  rate  of  one 
pound  a  week.  An  improvement  in  the  earnings 
of  women  in  this  class  of  work  was  effected  the 
following  December  by  an  amendment  providing 
for  the  payment  of  a  one-pound  wage  for  a  forty- 
eight-hour  week,  with  six  pence  as  the  hourly 
rate  for  all  work  in  excess  of  this  period.  A  pound 
now  has  no  more  purchasing  power  than  12  shill- 
ings had  before  the  war,  and  that  sum  had 
been  commonly  recognized  as  a  sweated  rate 
for  women  in  industry.  In  January,  1917,  pre- 
vious wage  orders  were  extended  to  cover  women 
in  subsidiary  trades  engaged  in  munition  making, 
where  hitherto  women's  wages  had  been  so  low 
as  to  call  forth  a  campaign  of  criticism.  March 
and  April,  1917  saw  substantial  wage  increases 
for  men  chiefly  in  the  engineering  branches  of 
the  munition  industry  and  the  promise  of  corre- 
sponding increases  for  women  workers. 

Difficulties  are  being  somewhat  overcome,  how- 
ever, partly  through  concerted  effort  and  partly 
through  a  natural  readjustment  to  what,  it  is  now 
apparent,  will  be  a  prolonged  struggle.  Due  credit 

144 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    ENGLAND 

should  be  given  to  the  English  government  for  its 
great  achievement  in  industrial  organization  dur- 
ing the  past  year  and  a  half,  and  for  its  recogni- 
tion of  the  importance  of  the  human  element  in 
efficiency  of  production ;  but  there  is  still  need  to 
remember  that  in  a  long  race  it  is  endurance,  not 
sprinting,  that  wins. 


145 


MUNITION  WORKERS  IN  FRANCE 

AS  DESCRIBED  BY  A  BRITISH  COMMISSION 

FRANCE  had  been  far  more  successful  than 
England  in  increasing  her  output  of  n,uni- 
tions  during  the  first  year  of  the  war.    In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  one-eighth  of  the  country  and 
five-eighths  of  the  former  "metallurgical  produc- 
tivity" were  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  her  manu- 
factures had  been  enormous.    The  response  to  her 
call  for  workers  had  been  both  more  enthusiastic 
and  more  immediate  than  England's. 

It  was,  therefore,  natural  that  the  British  gov- 
ernment should  turn  to  her  ally  for  guidance,  and 
in  November,  1915  the  Director-General  of  Re- 
cruiting for  Munitions  Work  in  England  ap- 
pointed a  commission  of  four  members*  to  visit 
the  industrial  districts  in  France  and  report  upon 
the  causes  which  had  contributed  to  the  enormous 
increase  in  the  production  of  munitions  in  that 
country.  The  commission  visited  23  factories  in 
different  centers  of  the  industry.  A  month  later, 
in  December,  1915,  it  made  its  reportf  giving  a 

*  J.  T.  Brownlie,  Chairman  of  Amalgamated  Society  of  En- 
gineers and  member  of  National  Advisory  Committee  and  the 
Central  Munitions  Labour  Supply  Committee ;  Alexander 
Duckham,  Ministry  of  Munitions;  D.  J.  Shackleton,  Labour 
Adviser,  Ministry  of  Munitions;  Allan  M.  Smith,  Secretary 
Engineering  Employers'  Federation  and  member  Central 
Munitions  Labour  Supply  Committee.  Two  engineers  experi- 
enced in  munition  manufacture  in  Great  Britain  were  attached 
to  the  Commission. 

f  Ministry  of  Munitions.  Report  by  Mission  Appointed  by 
the  Director-General  of  Recruiting  for  Munitions  Work. 
Output  of  Munitions  in  France.  London,  1916. 

146 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   FRANCE 

brief  account  of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  these 
factories. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  MUNITION  INDUSTRY 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  French  organi- 
zation they  found  to  be  the  prevalence  of  the 
small  producer.  There  were  1,800  of  these  in 
the  Paris  district  alone.  The  work  done  in  these 
small  shops  was  let  out  on  sub-contract  by  the 
large  producer.  The  small  French  shops  were 
often  manned  by  the  members  of  a  single  family 
who  divided  the  work  on  their  inadequate  ma- 
chinery into  day  and  night  shifts.  Despite  the 
many  handicaps  their  production  was  surprisingly 
satisfactory,  but  from  stories  told  it  was  apparent 
that  serious  overwork,  due  to  a  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  occurred  frequently  in  these  small  estab- 
lishments. One  woman,  whose  husband  was  at 
the  front,  literally  worked  herself  to  death  in 
superintending  his  shop,  and  he  was  then  recalled 
from  the  army  to  take  her  place. 

Another  feature  of  factory  organization  was 
the  high  degree  of  specialization  in  product  in 
each  plant,  which  resulted  in  an  increase  of  repeti- 
tive work  involving  less  need  for  skill,  greater 
speed,  and  decrease  in  the  amount  of  tool  room 
and  inspection  work  required. 

Apparently  the  English  system  of  government 
and  "controlled"  factories  had  not  been  adopted. 
New  factories  had  been  erected,  old  ones  extended, 
and  others  adapted  to  the  manufacture  of  muni- 
tions, but  in  spite  of  the  remarkable  increase  in 

147 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   FRANCE 

number  of  plants  none  had  received  either  a  sub- 
sidy or  a  loan  from  the  government. 

The  Commission  gave  high  praise  to  the  well- 
planned  layout  of  the  new  and  remodeled  shops 
in  avoiding  congestion  and  in  providing  extra  fa- 
cilities for  the  transport  of  material,  as  well  as  to 
the  initiative  and  energy  displayed  by  French 
manufacturers  in  importing  large  quantities  of 
new  machinery. 

INDUSTRIAL  RELATIONS 

In  the  munition  factories  a  large  proportion  of 
the  male  labor  is  military,  many  of  the  men  being 
those  who  are  not  physically  fit  for  active  service, 
but  who  are  still  mobilized  and  under  military  law. 
Any  attempt  in  England  to  employ  soldiers  in 
munition  plants  under  military  law  has  met 
active  opposition  by  the  trade  unions,  who  con- 
sidered it  nothing  less  than  industrial  compulsion. 
But  France  had  had  no  counterpart  of  England's 
difficulties  with  trade  unionism.  There  had  been 
no  strikes,  no  demands  for  general  wage  increases 
or  for  the  limitation  of  employers'  profits,  no  op- 
position to  the  "dilution"  of  labor  or  to  the  suspen- 
sion of  union  rules  of  hours  and  wages.  This  lack 
of  friction  may  in  part  be  due  to  the  fact  that  a 
large  number  of  the  workers  are  subject  to  mili- 
tary discipline.  The  Commission  were  inclined  to 
impute  it,  however,  to  the  intense  patriotism  of 
the  French. 

Subsequent  to  the  visit  of  the  British  Mission 
to  France,  however,  several  strikes  occurred  in 

148 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   FRANCE 

the  Paris  district,  arising  out  of  a  demand  for 
increased  wages.  As  a  result  of  these  distur- 
bances, in  January,  1917,  strikes  were  prohibited 
and  a  system  of  compulsory  arbitration  estab- 
lished. 

HOURS  OF  WORK 

The  same  general  schedule  of  hours  for  muni- 
tion plants  prevailed  in  France  as  in  England — 
that  is,  the  more  common  double  shift  of  twelve 
hours  as  well  as  the  three  eight-hour  shifts.  How- 
ever, because  of  an  absence  of  overtime  beyond 
the  regular  schedule  and  because  of  a  long  break 
at  noontime,  customary  in  the  working  day  in 
France,  which  averages  an  hour  and  a  half  and 
is  sometimes  two  hours,  there  was  at  least  no 
marked  evidence  of  fatigue.  The  intensity  of 
production  and  the  almost  entire  absence  of  lost 
time  were  the  two  tests  by  which  this  conclusion  in 
regard  to  fatigue  was  reached.  In  addition  to  the 
fact  that  overtime  was  not  worked,  the  change 
from  day  to  night  shift,  or  vice  versa,  which  is 
made  every  two  weeks,  gave  the  workers  twenty- 
four  hours  off. 

The  customary  starting  hour  for  the  day  shift 
was  6  or  7  a.m.  Ten  to  twelve  hours  are  worked 
on  this  shift,  and  nine  and  a  half  to  eleven  on  the 
night  shift.*  The  night  shift  began  at  6,  7  or  8 
p.m.,  and  ran  through  to  5,  6  or  7  a.m.,  according 
to  the  time  of  starting.  The  rest  period  at  night 
was  often  shorter  than  in  the  daytime,  being 


*  The  mean  hours  on  day  shift  are  10  hours,  45  minutes,  and 
on  night  shift  10  hours,  10  minutes. 

149 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN    FRANCE 

usually  one  hour,  and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  as 
short  as  half  an  hour,  in  which  case  the  time  was 
paid  for  and  the  machines  were  not  stopped.  It 
was  claimed  that  night  production  equalled  and 
sometimes  excelled  that  on  the  day  shifts.  Where 
the  three-shift  plan  has  been  adopted,  there  is  no 
break  whatsoever  for  meals  during  the  long  eight- 
hour  spell,  but  "in  some  cases  light  refreshment 
is  taken  while  the  work  proceeds." 

Two  schedules  for  the  triple  shift  were  found 
in  use.  According  to  the  first  schedule  the  first 
shift  ran  from  6  a.m.  to  2  p.m.,  the  second  from 
2  to  10  p.m.  and  the  third  from  10  p.m.  to  6  a.m. 
On  the  other  schedule  the  shifts  ran  from  4  a.m.  to 
12  noon,  from  1  p.m.  to  9  p.m.  and  from  8:45 
p.m.  to  4:15  a.m.  Saturday  hours  on  double  and 
triple  shift  systems  were  the  same  as  those  on 
other  days,  but  in  some  cases  work  stopped  at  noon 
on  Sunday. 

Sunday  Work:  No  statement  was  made  as  to 
the  prevalence  of  Sunday  labor,  but  by  implica- 
tion the  impression  was  conveyed  that  at  least 
part  of  Sunday  is  commonly  a  working  day.  The 
change  from  day  to  night  shift,  however,  gives  a 
twenty-four  hour  rest  period  every  other  week. 

Lost  Time:  Lost  time  is  dealt  with  severely 
when  it  is  due  to  avoidable  causes,  and  this  may 
account  for  the  strikingly  small  amount  which  oc- 
curs. A  first  offense  on  the  part  of  a  civilian 
brings  a  reprimand,  a  second  sometimes  a  fine,  but 
more  often  dismissal.  Military  workers  are  dealt 
with  under  military  law. 

150 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   FRANCE 

WAGES 

The  question  of  wages,  which  did  not  come  with- 
in the  jurisdiction  of  the  Newman  Committee,  was 
dealt  with  in  the  report  of  the  Commission  to 
France.  Piece  rates  were  paid  for  almost  every 
type  of  work,  and  women  received  the  same  rate 
as  men.  During  their  period  of  training,  however, 
workers  were  paid  a  time  rate,  usually  the  guaran- 
teed minimum.  The  premium  bonus  system  was 
not  in  use  anywhere.  Some  average  daily  earn- 
ings are  given  in  Appendix  C  of  the  report.  For 
men,  the  averages*  ranged  from  6.01  francs  per 
day  for  laborers  to  10.42  francs  for  machine  men 
and  12.23  francs  for  skilled  workers.  For  women, 
the  minimum  was  3.53  francs  and  the  mean  5.95. 
These  earnings,  while  low  compared  with  Ameri- 
can wages,  seem  to  be  somewhat  in  excess  of 
wages  paid  in  France  before  the  warf  for  work 
of  a  similar  nature,  although  the  Commission 
itself  makes  no  comparison.  But  food  prices  and 
the  cost  of  living  generally  have  advanced  so  much 

*  These  averages  are  averages  of  the  mean  earnings  per 
shop  and  are  not  weighted  according  to  the  number  of  em- 
ployes per  shop. 

fin  1911,  in  a  report  published  by  the  French  Minister  of 
Labor  on  wages  and  cost  of  living,  the  mean  daily  earnings 
for  day  laborers  was  5  francs  in  Paris  and  3.26  francs  in 
other  cities ;  for  metal  workers  8.25  francs  in  Paris  and  5.39  in 
other  cities ;  for  iron  founders  10  francs  in  Paris  and  5.12 
in  other  cities.  In  women's  occupations,  such  as  millinery, 
the  mean  daily  earnings  were  5  francs  in  Paris  and  2.48  in 
other  cities;  for  dressmakers  3.50  francs  in  Paris  and  2.28  in 
other  cities. — Ministere  du  travail  et  de  la  prevoyance  sociale. 
Salaires  et  cout  de  1'existence  a  diverses  epoques.  Paris,  1911. 
pp.  22-23. 

151 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   FRANCE 

that  the  slight  increase  in  wages  does  not  in  any 
way  compensate  for  the  added  drain  on  expendi- 
tures. January,  1917,  however,  brought  the  es- 
tablishment, by  the  French  Minister  of  Munitions, 
of  a  basic  minimum  hourly  rate  for  women  of  .65 
francs,  equivalent  to  six  pence,  a  standard  for 
which  English  women  workers  have  thus  far 
struggled  in  vain.  For  men  the  basic  minimum 
rate  was  fixed  at  .80  francs  an  hour.  The  average 
minimum  hourly  earnings  for  piecework  were  not 
to  fall  below  one  franc  for  men  or  .75  francs  for 
women  according  to  this  order. 

THE  WOMEN   WORKERS 

The  employment  of  women,  of  course,  receives 
special  consideration  in  any  discussion  of  war 
work.  As  in  England,  French  women  have  been 
drawn  into  the  munition  industry  from  all  em- 
ployments and  from  non-industrial  life.  An  in- 
teresting table  is  presented  in  Appendix  B  of  the 
report,  showing  the  former  occupations  of  women 
employed  in  one  large  plant  and  the  processes  of 
work  on  which  they  are  at  present  engaged. 
Housewives,  domestic  servants,  artists,  hair- 
dressers, clerks,  florists,  dressmakers,  typists, 
weavers,  milliners,  school  teachers,  lace  makers, 
those  "of  no  profession,"  and  many  others  are 
listed.  Housewives  formed  over  20  per  cent  of 
the  women  employed,  and  in  several  departments 
actually  constituted  the  predominant  group. 

The  work  done  by  women  covered  practically 
all  processes.  At  the  time  of  the  visit  of  the  Com- 

152 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   FRANCE 

mission  they  were  beginning  to  be  employed  even 
at  some  parts  of  setting  up  and  tool  making,  in- 
cluding the  grinding  of  tool  edges.  It  was  thought 
by  some  of  the  members  of  the  Commission,  how- 
ever, that  some  of  the  work  done  would  be  con- 
sidered in  England  to  involve  too  severe  a  strain. 
Women's  output  on  "small  work"  equalled  and 
in  some  cases  even  exceeded  that  of  men,  while 
on  the  heavy  work,  for  the  most  part,  their  pro- 
ductive power  was  of  practically  equal  value. 
Their  hours  of  work  were  substantially  the  same, 
except  that  there  was  a  tendency  to  employ  but 
few  women  at  night,  which  had  under  the  double- 
shift  plan  resulted  practically  in  a  day  shift  for 
women  and  a  night  shift  for  men.  Under  the 
three-shift  system,  however,  women  were  em- 
ployed at  night,  and  the  tendency  was  toward  their 
more  frequent  employment  at  night  on  the  double 
shift  as  well.  An  effort  to  overcome  the  fatigue 
from  congested  transit  was  shown  by  the  custom 
of  permitting  women  who  were  obliged  to  ride 
to  and  from  work  to  begin  fifteen  minutes  later 
than  men,  and  leave  fifteen  minutes  earlier. 

For  the  most  part,  good  sanitary  conditions 
were  found  in  the  French  shops,  as  well  as  ade- 
quate washing  and  locker  facilities.  Several  fac- 
tories supplied  caps  and  overalls  for  women.  No 
other  provision,  however,  against  exposure  to  in- 
dustrial poisons  or  accident,  nor  for  medical  serv- 
ice within  the  factories  was  mentioned.  Some 
firms  had  woman  superintendents  of  discipline,  in 
addition  to  forewomen,  but  employers  were 

153 


MUNITION   WORKERS   IN   FRANCE 

divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  desirability  of  such  a 
plan. 

TECHNICAL  INSTRUCTION  OF  WORKERS 

No  provision  had  been  made  by  the  French 
government  for  the  technical  instruction  of  un- 
skilled men  and  women,  and  the  necessary  training 
was  given  therefore  in  each  factory.  The  average 
period  of  training  for  women  on  machines  was 
a  week,  though  it  ranged  from  less  than  one  day 
to  a  fortnight.  A  man  often  taught  a  woman  who 
then  took  his  place,  taught  another  woman,  and 
then  was  replaced  as  a  teacher  by  her  pupil. 

CAUSE  OF  INCREASED  PRODUCTION 

The  Commission  gave  the  highest  praise  to  both 
employers  and  workers.  They  believed  that  the 
patriotic  spirit  on  both  sides  was  responsible  for 
the  good  timekeeping  of  workers,  for  freedom 
from  trade  union  restrictions,  and  for  increased 
intensity  of  production.  Employers  had  stopped 
at  nothing  to  get  the  most  adequate  equipment. 
While,  as  has  been  stated,  no  official  limit  had 
been  put  on  profits,  as  in  England,  neither  had 
there  been  any  demand  for  it  made  by  workers. 
This  freedom  from  restraint  and  the  greater  in- 
centive for  gain  may  have  reacted  favorably  on  the 
output  of  munitions.*  Though  several  incidental 
factors  were  mentioned  as  in  part  responsible  for 

*  A  recent  newspaper  item,  however,  states  that  a  committee 
of  the  French  Senate  have  brought  charges  against  French 
munition  manufacturers  of  graft  and  excessive  profits  made 
on  government  contracts. 

154 


MUNITION   WORKERS    IN   FRANCE 

the  enormous  manufacture  of  war  materials,  the 
success  was  attributed  almost  wholly  to  the  splen- 
did spirit  of  devotion  to  the  French  cause  shown 
by  workers  and  employers.  The  final  conclusion 
of  the  report,  despite  the  presence  of  a  trade  union 
member  on  the  Commission,  makes  by  implication 
a  thrust  at  English  labor.  It  states  that  "the 
people  of  France  realize  that  they  are  at  war,  that 
their  one  idea  .  .  .  is  to  bring  the  war  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue,"  and  that,  furthermore,  the  increase 
of  production  is  due  to  one  cause,  and  one  only, 
and  that  is — patriotic  enthusiasm. 


155 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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